The theme of World Diabetes Day 2016 is Eyes on Diabetes. The year’s activities and materials focus on promoting the importance of screening to ensure early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and treatment to reduce the risk of serious complications.

• In many countries diabetes is a leading cause of blindness, cardiovascular disease, kidney failure and lower-limb amputation.
• Of the 415 million adults worldwide living with diabetes in 2015,1 over one third will develop some form of diabetic retinopathy – a complication of diabetes that can lead to vision impairment and blindness.
• Early detection and timely treatment of diabetic retinopathy can prevent vision loss and reduce the impact of diabetes on individuals, their carers and society.

Make an appointment with your doctor today to discuss your risk of developing diabetes, or ways of preventing complications. Call 8038 1070 or book online.

Postnatal Depression Awareness Week will now be known as Perinatal Depression and Anxiety (PNDA) Awareness Week. This change is in response to the importance of recognising and supporting parents’ mental health right through the perinatal period (during pregnancy and after birth). Antenatal anxiety and depression are strong risk factors in developing postnatal anxiety and depression. Early treatment during pregnancy can reduce these risks. We need to consider a parent’s wellbeing across this continuum, rather than viewing these periods as separate.

Up to 1 in 10 expecting mums and 1 in 20 expecting dads struggle with antenatal depression and more than 1 in 7 new mums and up to 1 in 10 new dads are diagnosed with postnatal depression each year. Even more are thought to suffer anxiety. It’s important for expecting and new parents, as well as those around them, to be aware of perinatal anxiety and depression, to know the signs to look out for and where to go for help. Everyone’s experience of parenthood, including perinatal anxiety and depression, is different. However with the right treatment and support, new parents can make a full recovery.

Join us this year in raising awareness of perinatal anxiety and depression in Australia. For more information visit the PANDA website.

Make an appointment to discuss your mental health and anxiety with your doctor today! Call 8038 1070 or book online.

A Food Safety Information Council survey found that most people don’t have the correct hand washing technique and an amazing 9 per cent of women and 27 per cent of men didn’t wash their hands at all when observed in a shopping centre washroom. A similar result has been found in US studies and may mean that we are getting complacent about good hand hygiene in western countries.

You might find with correct hand washing that you and your family may not only get less food poisoning but also less viral diseases like colds and flu. In the US, a study found that school children had fewer days off school sick once they had instituted a hand washing program.

Everything you touch is capable of transferring bugs onto your hands, but things like sores, pets, used handkerchiefs and tissues and the things you touch when you go to the toilet can be especially dirty.

How to wash your hands properly

Below are some tips on washing your hands correctly:

• Wet your hands and rub together well to build up a good lather with soap as the suds help to carry the bugs away. Do this for at least 20 seconds and don’t forget to wash between your fingers and under your nails. You might have to use a nail brush
• Rinse well under running water to remove the bugs from your hands
• Dry your hands thoroughly on a clean towel for at least 20 seconds. Touching surfaces with moist hands encourages bugs to spread from the surface to your hands.
• You can time 20 seconds by singing ‘happy birthday to you’ this is also a good way to encourage your children to wash their hands for the correct period.

Always wash and dry your hands:

• before handling, preparing and eating food
• after touching raw meat, fish, shell eggs or chicken
• after using the toilet, attending to children’s (or others) toiletting and changing nappies
• after blowing your nose
• after touching a pet.

Do not touch sores, wounds and cuts when handling and preparing food.

Visit the Food Safety Council for more information.

For 30 days during the month formerly known as November, champion the moustache and take action for men’s health.

Money raised goes towards over 1000 men’s health causes, prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health foundations.

To sign up visit Movember Australia’s Website.

The Day for Daniel is a National Day of Action to raise awareness of child safety, protection and harm prevention.

It aims to help empower our children to Recognise, React and Report if they feel something is not right.

Wear Red and Educate is the theme of for Day for Daniel as we strive to have schools, kindergartens, businesses and communities across Australia take action and conduct child safety activities in their local communities to help in Keeping Kids Safe.

Day for Daniel is also an opportunity for Australians to make a statement that crimes against children are not acceptable in modern Australia.

Visit Day for Daniel for more information.

Lead poisoning is entirely preventable, yet lead exposure is estimated to account for 0.6% of the global burden of disease, with the highest burden in developing regions. Childhood lead exposure is estimated to contribute to about 600 000 new cases of children with intellectual disabilities every year. Even though there is wide recognition of this problem and many countries have taken action, exposure to lead, particularly in childhood, remains of key concern to health care providers and public health officials worldwide.

Paints containing high levels of lead are still widely available and used in many countries for decorative purposes, although good substitutes without lead are available. This is an opportunity to mobilize political and social commitment for further progress.

During the campaign week, the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint aims to:

• Raise awareness about lead poisoning;
• Highlight countries and partners’ efforts to prevent childhood lead poisoning; and
• Urge further action to eliminate lead paint

For more information, visit the WHO website.

SUDEP is the sudden, unexpected death of someone with epilepsy, who was otherwise healthy. No other cause of death is found when an autopsy is done. Each year, more than 1 out of 1,000 people with epilepsy die from SUDEP. If seizures are uncontrolled the risk of SUDEP increases to more than 1 out of 150. These sudden deaths are rare in children, but are the leading cause of death in young adults with uncontrolled seizures.

For more information visit Epilepsy Australia.

The 10th International Brain Tumour Awareness Week will be held from Saturday, 22nd October to Saturday, 29th October inclusive. You can organise an activity which will contribute to increased awareness about brain tumours. It could be a walk (see information about the Walk Around the World for Brain Tumours), a picnic, an information seminar, a scientific conference, or the distribution of a media statement to local media which draws attention to the particular challenges of a brain tumour and the need for a special response and an increased research effort.

To register/report your Awareness Week activity, visit the International Brain Tumor Awareness Week Website.

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month

Pregnancy & Infant Loss is an eternal heartache for hundreds of thousands of parents around the world. October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month – a month we at Bears Of Hope, recognise and promote the importance of early and ongoing support for the 1 in 4 parents who experience the loss of their baby within Australia.

More than half a century ago Eleanor Roosevelt said, It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Many have since gone on to believe that the lit candle represents hope in the dark and a resistance against the shadows of our own minds.

October 15th is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day. A day where families across the globe are asked to light a candle in remembrance of their baby whose life was too short. If everyone was to light a candle at 7pm in their local time and leave it burning for an hour there will be a continuous wave of light across the world for 24hrs.

May you always see the hope through that flicker of light.

For more information, visit Bears of Hope.

World Mental Health Day (WMHD) is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy. An initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, WMHD is an annual program held on 10 October to raise public awareness of mental health issues worldwide.

This year in Australia, WMHD has three objectives:

1. Encourage help seeking behaviour
2. Reduce the stigma associated with mental illness
3. Foster connectivity throughout communities

You don’t have to have a mental illness to take part, you just need to have an interest in your own good health, which is important to everyone.

Mental Health Australia is delighted to be leading the WMHD campaign in Australia. As the peak not-for-profit organisation representing the mental health sector in Australia, Mental Health Australia has a focus on ensuring the whole community recognises the part we all play in creating a mentally healthy society.

For more information, visit the Mental Health Australia website.