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President's Report “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Mahatma Gandhi On Sunday, we had our Cluster Presidents’ Meeting. For newer members, this is a meeting
of the presidents of the eight clubs on the Peninsula. Apart from learning what great
activities and fund-raisers are happening in each of the clubs, the focus was on
homelessness. Currently on the Peninsula, it is estimated that there are 1,000 homeless
people, 16% of whom are living on the foreshore.
Next week is National Homelessness Week - 6 to 12 August. On Friday 11 August, there will
be a Community Walk from the Rosebud Pier (starting at 4pm) to the Rosebud Village
Green, followed by a Community Rally beginning at 5pm. This walk is being supported by
each of the Community Support Centres, the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, Fusion
and the Good Neighbour Project. 
Mornington Rotary Club has shown strong support for the Mornington Community Support
Centre. This includes the Ryman project, our recent Changeover Fundraiser and assistance
towards purchase of new furniture for the newly refurbished premises. I’m very pleased to
report that the filming of the advocacy video (Homeless in Paradise) which our club
supported, is now well underway.
Finally, Jade Phelan confirmed this week, that The Bays Hospital Nurse Education Fund has
received a further $12k in donations from supporters of this worthy cause.
Pam Hall Club Meetings Our meeting numbers are still low, as members and friends continue to explore warmer climes, however our guest speakers have provided much food for thought, as detailed in Dr Chris Reynolds' report below. The use of personal data is a cause of increasing concern for many, so it is good to hear of some potentially good outcomes from our health data. How to grow old (dis)gracefully? It is predicted that by 2056 there will be 8.7 million older Australians. But how many of them will be in good health and enjoying their best possible state of well-being? At a recent club meeting, attended by an audience of interested Rotarians and guests and chaired by Judy Seager, the topic was healthy ageing. The speakers, however, were young and well-informed and looking for community support and interaction with our club members. Dr Emily Parker (centre) is the Research Manager for the National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) Data Platform. She has a PhD in basic science and expertise in the early phase set-up and ongoing management of national research projects. Emily is responsible for managing the development phase of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing Data Platform, including governance, data access and sharing processes. Dr Kim Naude (left) is the community engagement officer for the National Centre for Healthy Ageing Data Platform. She is a pharmacist and has recently completed her PhD exploring the barriers to accessing medicines and pharmacy services for resettled refugees from Africa. She has broad experience in health literacy, pharmacy, and public health research. Speaking to members Emily shared the challenges and benefits of the databases being provided and the research undertaken and serviced at the National Centre for Healthy Ageing. All of this is based here in the Mornington Peninsula at the Ngarnga Centre, Frankston Hospital. Through a partnership between University (Monash University) and an affiliated Health Service (Peninsula Health), NCHA is integrating Electronic Health Record (EHR) data across multiple healthcare sectors within the Frankston-Mornington Peninsula region in Victoria. Challenges 1: Identifying existing data, their quality and applicability for addressing any of the research requirements envisaged 2: Encouraging engagement and participation by community members in identifying research issues. Databases -projects One project investigates the impact of COVID 19 lockdowns on hospital presentations. Another investigated the mental health of over-65- year-olds. The dementia project is making use of electronic medical records linked with routinely collected health department data such as Medicare, pharmaceutical and age care data, to enable the generation of high-quality predictive algorithms. These algorithms will be applied nationally to monitor dementia prevalence across Australia. Mapping the alcohol and other drug patient journey to reduce Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) harms through a detailed understanding of patient pathways into and through AOD treatment. From this work, the aim is to identify opportunities for connecting and retaining patients in the AOD treatment system. Each year, AOD are involved in more than 137,000 hospital admissions and 28 per cent of emergency department injuries. Even though preventable, this costs the economy $23.5 billion. Judy thanked our two speakers for generously giving their time to speak to our Rotary club. In support of their work we encourage you, our readers, to visit their website to learn more about this amazing and potentially invaluable new research centre. Dr Chris Reynolds This week, our speaker is Mr John Vale, a producer and presenter on Community FM radio. This is sure to be an interesting evening, so prepare your playlists and come and enjoy our meeting. Happy birthday to Pam and Meredith, who will be celebrating in the next 2 weeks, and in Meredith's case, possibly for the next 2 months! Enjoy our winter sunshine and remember: ROTARY - Create Hope in the World |
