Doctors say ‘cure’ for eating disorders is a reality

Great news for the RCH Eating Disorders Program that we profiled in 2011. 

[Image via]

Young people with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa have every chance of reaching a cure thanks to proven, intensive treatment, according to staff at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH).

This week, the State Government announced $3 million additional funding for the RCH Eating Disorders Program – a commitment welcomed by RCH staff and families.

Director of the RCH Centre for Adolescent Health, Professor Susan Sawyer, says the funding is a coup for Victorians, with adolescent services often overlooked in funding decisions despite the high prevalence of eating disorders in this age group.

“I’ve been working with young people with eating disorders for the past 17 years. Given the benefits of investing in curative treatments for anorexia nervosa in adolescence, we’re absolutely delighted with these new funds,” Professor Sawyer said.

The revolutionary treatment is guided by a team of adolescent and mental health clinicians whose focus is empowering parents to form a key part of the healing process.

Professor Sawyer says their ‘Family Based Therapy’ (FBT) approach has contributed to a 75 per cent drop in readmission rates at the RCH, with 97 per cent of those who complete the program recovering fully and many teenagers weight restored within six months.

“Previously, treatment failure was the norm. After many years of unsuccessful treatment, we commonly had to ‘graduate’ our older adolescents to adult services as they failed to recover. The introduction of FBT means that we now aim for cure in adolescence,” she said.

The RCH Eating Disorders Program has reduced the road to recovery for sufferers from 7 years to appox 6 months, and won a Victorian Public Healthcare Award in 2011.

Read more about the RCH Eating Disorders Program here.

Donate directly to the Centre for Adolescent Health here.

Heroic Mum’s Charity Walk Exceeds Expectations.

Heroic RCH mum Liat Harrower and the Rotary Club of Werribee have raised over $62,000 for The Royal Children’s Hospital’s Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program (VPPCP).


Liat and the Rotary Club of Werribee organised the 200km and friends completed the harrowing nine-day 200km Charity Walk across regional Victoria in March. Despite injuries, soggy feet and blisters the walkers trekked from North East Victoria to Melbourne starting at Harrietville and travelling through Bright, Myrtleford, Beechworth, Bowser, Tarrawingee, Wangaratta and Parkville before finishing in Werribee.


Liat organised the 200km Charity Walk in memory of her son Mitchell who was diagnosed with a rare and incurable genetic condition at only six months old. Liat cared for Mitchell until he passed away in August 2008 at the age of seven. The walk is aimed to raise awareness and funds to help support children with life-limiting conditions and their families through the VPPCP.

 
Palliative care focuses on enhancing the quality of life for the child and support for the family and includes the management of distressing symptoms, provision of respite, and care through death and bereavement. Liat describes the work of the VPPCP, which provided Mitchell with care and support during his final year, as remarkable.
“If it was not for services such as those provided through the VPPCP, it would not be possible for families to spend such precious time with their child.”


In order to raise funds and reach a collective target of $40,000 each walker challenged themselves to raise over $1000. This year the group exceeded that amount as well as their own expectations by raising just over $62,000. This is the third year that the event has been held, with last year’s fundraising efforts raising $25,000.


Liat and her team presented the funds to members of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation at a celebratory dinner in Werribee. The next 200km Charity Walk is scheduled to be held in October 2013.

2 Notes

Immunising Your Baby May Not Be So Painful After All!

Immunising a baby can be a stressful process at the best of times. Luckily we’ve heard news that the process may become less painful!

According to a report by Lucie van den Berg of the Herald Sun, recent findings by US researchers show that parents may finally be able breathe a sigh of relief when it comes immunising their baby.

A study on 234 infants aged two to four months found that five simple techniques- swaddling, shushing, swinging a child on their side or stomach, and giving them a dummy to suck- significantly relieves babies’ pain by triggering their calming reflex. Known affectionately as the Five S’s, the study found the techniques decreased babies’ pain scores and crying time during vaccinations.

The Royal Children’s Hospital immunisation specialist Dr Nigel Crawford said its dedicated drop-in centre for the hospital’s patients already used a variety of age appropriate techniques to soothe and distract patients.
“The common ones are just making the infants feel comfortable when they first arrive. The immunisations are always done in a private side room to make sure the infant and parents feel comfortable,” he said.

If you’re interested in finding out more information on immunisation for your baby at The Royal Children’s Hospital click here.

To read the Lucie van den Berg’s full article in the Herald Sun click here.

Immunisation Week - sounds nasty, but really it’s important!

Australia’s first ever Immunisation Week held from 23 – 29 April 2012 is a great time for parents to consider the vaccination needs of their children, particularly adolescent children.

Victoria currently achieves 92 per cent coverage for free vaccines given to babies and children compared to an estimated 75 per cent for adolescents.

“While Victorian parents are very vigilant about immunisation for babies and young children, we need to ensure that they are aware of the crucial vaccinations available for free in the teen years,” explained Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Rosemary Lester.

“Young people are still vulnerable to disease while they mature into adulthood and immunising against preventable disease is just as important for adolescents as it is for babies and younger children – for their health and the health of those around them,” she said.

“Even though they’re big kids now they still need their parents to take care of their immunisation needs and protect them against preventable diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus,” Dr Lester said.

Advice for parents of babies and children up to age four

Advice for parents of adolescents

For more information:

$1.3 million towards ‘making sick kids better’

The Good Friday Appeal team just sent us this image, and we thought we would share it with you. It captures one of the proudest moments of our year - the annual handover of the Auxiliaries cheque at the Good Friday Appeal.

Congrats to the RCH Auxiliaries, who raised a record amount in 2011/2012, and contributed more than $1.3million towards the 2012 Good Friday Appeal.

This image is Carole Lowen, President of Auxiliaries and Sue Manson, Auxiliaries Coordinator handing over the ‘big cheque’ to Jennifer Keyte, GFA Patron from Channel 7.

About The Royal Children’s Hospital Auxiliaries

The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne is supported by a vibrant and dedicated network of Auxiliary groups.  Made up of over 1000 volunteers from all over Victoria, the Auxiliaries are an incomparable force in community fundraising.

Celebrating 90 years in 2012 and having raised over $38 million dollars for the hospital since 1922, the Auxiliaries’ are wholly devoted to their mission:

‘One team working towards one goal – making sick kids better.’

Find out more.

Silent flashmob makes noise about reading

Yesterday a ‘flashmob’ of staff, parents and patients dropped everything to read for 30 minutes at the RCH to highlight the benefits of reading as an essential life skill.


 
The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) is a partner in the 2012 National Year of Reading.  This year is all about children learning to read and keen readers finding new sources of inspiration. It’s about supporting reading initiatives while respecting the oral tradition of storytelling. It’s about helping people discover and rediscover the magic of books.

And most of all, it’s about Australians becoming a nation of readers.
 
For more about National Year of Reading at the RCH visit, www.rch.org.au/education

2012 Cystic Fibrosis Fun Run a record breaker

The Royal Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust was formed in 2000 by a group of parents in conjunction with Associate Professor Philip Robinson, Director of The Royal Children’s Hospital Respiratory Medicine Department. The group seeks to fund research into cystic fibrosis (CF), a life-threatening genetic disorder that severely affects lung function and digestion.

Research projects are based at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), one of the world’s leading paediatric teaching hospitals, which has more than 300 CF patients under its care.

Last week the trust held one of their major fundraisers, the 6th annual CF Trust Fun Run, under sunny skies in Moonee Ponds.

Over 700 participants elected to do either the challenging 8km run including the now famous ‘heart break hill’ or the leisurely flat 4km walk and run around the river starting and finishing at the Anglers Tavern.

This years event was the largest ever and organisers were delighted that this years event has raised over $45,000, which is another record.

These funds are 100% directed to CF research at the Royal Children’s Hospital which supervises the care and treatment of children with this life limiting incurable disease.

Dr Phil Robinson, the trust’s medical chairman, said the day was a wonderful event made possible by the efforts of the many volunteers and supported by so many in the CF community and local community in general.

“Our trust’s motto ‘Creating a Future’ reflects our desire through research to improve the lives of people with CF and this wonderful amount will help us in our continued push to achieve this”, Dr Robinson said.

Details of further fund raising events organised by the trust can be found on the trusts website

About Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-threatening inherited disease in Australia. It affects 1 in 2500 children and 1 in 25 people are carriers of the CF gene.

CF primarily affects the respiratory and digestive systems, and patients generally suffer chronic lung infections.Many suffer complications such as diabetes and osteoporosis, and many ultimately require lung transplants.

CF is currently incurable however 80% of those born with CF this century are expected to reach their 30th birthday.


sierrazulu: Alisa Camplin at the RCH to hand over a $20k cheque for the Intensive Care nurses who cared for her son Finnan. The Finnan’s Gift Grant was established last year when Alisa and her husband Oliver lost 10 day old Finnan to congenital heart disease. Such amazing people. (Taken with instagram)

sierrazulu:

Alisa Camplin at the RCH to hand over a $20k cheque for the Intensive Care nurses who cared for her son Finnan. The Finnan’s Gift Grant was established last year when Alisa and her husband Oliver lost 10 day old Finnan to congenital heart disease. Such amazing people. (Taken with instagram)

sierrazulu
4 Notes

Alisa Camplin presents $20,000 Finnan’s Gift Grant to The Royal Children’s Hospital

Olympic gold medallist Alisa Camplin and her husband Oliver Camplin-Warner presented the inaugural Finnan’s Gift Grant to the Intensive Care (Rosella Ward) nursing team at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) today in memory of their son Finnan.

The grant of $20,000 has been raised through exceptional community generosity following the establishment of Finnan’s Gift in 2011.

Finnan Maximus Camplin-Warner was diagnosed in-utero with congenital heart disease (CHD) and passed away at just 10-days-old.

The fundraising project was set up by Alisa and Oliver to honour their son and to raise awareness for CHD, which is the leading cause of death in young children in Australia.

The inaugural Finnan’s Gift Grant will specifically fund the Intensive Care (Rosella Ward) nurses to take advantage of a number of education, professional development and training opportunities that will support their work in delivering the best treatments and care at the RCH.The nurses will attend various important industry conferences, enabling them to present their research and enhance their leadership skills and knowledge.

In 2011, Finnan’s Gift’s first fundraising goal of $300,000 was reached in just three months following an outpouring of public support for the Camplin-Warners.

The funds bought a state-of-the-art echocardiology scanning machine for the RCH cardiology department, which has been up and running at the hospital since October 2011.

Following this success, Alisa and Oliver established an ongoing grant, to be presented annually to further honour Finnan’s memory while supporting the RCH specialists, surgeons, nurses and doctors who cared for him.

“Finnan’s Gift has become a very significant part of Oliver’s and my life now. After donating the echocardiology machine in 2011 we simply couldn’t walk away because there is just so much more to do.The Finnan’s Gift Grants will be a way for us to continue giving, to keep working within our community for a better world and of course remember our gorgeous son. We know it won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is,” Alisa said.

RCH Intensive Care Nurse Unit Manager, Adrian Hutchinson says the grant will make a significant contribution to supporting Intensive Care nurses at the RCH.

“Finnan’s Gift Grant will allow our Intensive Care Nurses to take advantage of a number of opportunities that will support their work in delivering the very best treatments to our sickest children,” he said.

Keep reading here… 

An important policy gap: mental health in early childhood

Mental health in early childhood (from birth to primary school age) deserves far more attention, according to the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Melissa Sweet of Croakey, the forum for discussion about health issues and policy on Crikey, summarised the views of the CCCH well:

Australia has seen significantly increased awareness of mental illness and a major increase in funding available to try to address the issue. However, mental health in early childhood – that is from birth to primary school age – remains a poor cousin to adult and youth mental health.

The focus for attention and funding is primarily on 12-25 year olds and disadvantaged groups – only a tiny fraction of the available mental health funding in Australia is devoted to 0-12 year olds. The next step is to focus on mental illness prevention and mental health promotion from very early childhood; many of the mental health problems encountered in adolescence and adulthood have their origins in early childhood.

The definition of mental health problems in early childhood is complex, but for the purposes of this Policy Brief it includes a range of social, emotional and behavioural concerns.

Why is this issue important?

  • There are significant social, emotional and financial costs associated with mental health problems.
  • The number of children with mental health problems is increasing.
  • Around half of all childhood mental health problems will persist.
  • The current service system is unable to respond effectively to the needs of children and their families.

What are the implications of the research?

  • Pathways to poor mental health often start early in life – well before the age of 12 years.
  • Many parents need support and assistance to give their children the best possible start in life. Parenting practices are a known influence on children’s mental health.
  • Community acceptance and understanding of the existence of mental health concerns in childhood is poor.
  • Preventive programs that support parents to parent well may be the most effective option to facilitate good mental health in children.
  • There are significant barriers to children accessing either preventive programs or treatment which need to be addressed.
  • It is more cost effective to intervene early when mental health concerns are first identified.

If you’re interested in mental health in children and young people - and we all should be! - the information from the CCCH is well worth the read. You can continue reading this article here.

Massive March, Awesome April

The past couple of months have been seen some wonderful successes for our fundraising community.  We are so proud and grateful.  Here are some highlights below.

Did you take part in any of these great events, or know someone who did? Big thanks from us!

‘Angling for a Cure’ Fun Run – for The Royal Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Trust

The Royal Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Trust (RCCFT) held a fundraising fun run at Maribyrnong on the weekend. Over 700 runners and walkers took part, and the event was hosted by Dr Phil Robinson, who is an active volunteer fundraiser for the RCCFT, and a large number of RCH staff.

Special mention goes to RCH staff member Sam Ira, who fundraised even though he was unable to take part on the day due to his own challenges with CF.  

The event has raised over $40,000 to go towards assisting the RCH’s Dr Phil Robinson and the RCCFT to find a cure for cystic fibrosis. More.

American Women’s Auxiliary 17th Annual Golf Event – for the Children’s Bioethics Centre

For more than 80 years, the American Women’s Auxiliary have been working to fundraise for the hospital. Their most recent event was their 17th golf day.  82 golfers teed off, and altogether the event raised a wonderful $25,000 to go towards assisting the Children’s Bioethics Centre. A wonderful result. More.

Beyond Sight Swimathon – for retinoblastoma

Beyond Sight Auxiliary raise funds to help find a cure for retinoblastoma, a cancerous tumour affecting the retina of the eye.

They recently held a Swimathon, where 120 kids swam over 696kms of laps in 24 hours to raise funds.  This massive effort from all the young people involved produced a successful result.

They raised over $13,000 to fund an interactive website and educational DVD for newly diagnosed families.

200km Walk - for the Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program

For the third time, a fundraising group walked 200km to raise funds for the Victorian Paediatric Palliative Care Program. Led by RCH Mum Liat Harrower and members of the Rotary Club of Werribee, the group walked across North East Victoria, and in the process raised more than $60,000 for the VPPCP. A heroic group of people, and a brilliant result.

If you’re interested in fundraising, or getting involved in an event that supports the hospital, find out how here.


Honouring a friend and making a difference for Cardiology patients

When Simon passed away suddenly in 2007 from a heart condition at just 27, his friends Alicia and Hamish Maclean decided to honour his memory by raising funds for the Cardiology department at The Royal Children’s Hospital.

Alicia and Hamish knew that Simon had spent time at the RCH as a child, so on the 1st anniversary of Simon’s death in 2008 they held the first Making A Difference ball, raising more than $10,000 to fund the purchase of a cardiac MRI coil for use with babies suffering cardiac diseases.

The initial experience inspired Alicia and Hamish to want to continue to make a difference.

“It was a lot of fun and wonderful to be able to honor Simon” Alicia said.

In July 2010 the Macleans held the second Making A Difference ball which raised an incredible $16,292.00 to fund the purchase of five Holter Monitors for the Cardiology Department.

The Macleans visited the RCH to present the monitors to Michael Cheung, the Director of Cardiology, and Alexandra Savis, the acting chief cardiac technologist.

The Holter Monitors are small and light and can be discreetly attached to a patient to enable the recording of the heart rhythm for between 24-48 hours whilst they are at home taking part in normal activity. The data captured can then be analysed by RCH doctors at a later date to help detect abnormalities in the heart rhythm.

The purchase of the new monitors has meant there are more available at any time for patients to take home, which has substantially reduced the waiting times to take part in the study. Families have also been less likely to need to make a return trip to the hospital just to have a monitor fitted.

Thank you to the Macleans and all their supporters for their continued fundraising efforts for the RCH. We truly appreciate all your hard work.

Alicia and Hamish Maclean with Director of Cardiology, Michael Cheung and Foundation representative Lauren Stewart

Holter heart monitors

Alicia Maclean with cardiac technician Alexandra Savis

Beyond Sight swimathon; 696 kilometres, 20 hours and over $13,000 for retinoblastoma

Beyond Sight are an Auxiliary that raise funds to help find a cure for retinoblastoma, a condition that effects one in 14,000 children. They recently held a Swimathon, where members of Hoppers Crossing Swimming Club covered over 696 kms over 24 hours to raise funds.  

A massive effort from all the young people involved – most of the participants were kids from the swimming club. We are sure it’s not much fun to be swimming at midnight! But they got a hugely successful result. The money raised - approximately $13,000 and still counting - will be used to fund an interactive website and educational DVD for newly diagnosed families.

Below is a report of the big day from Ainsley Faust, President of Beyond Sight, and RCH retinoblastoma parent.

After a shaky start, with a limited number of swimmers signed up, we began the day on a high with an opening blessing by Father Bob Maguire.

Father Bob had everyone excited and pumped about the next 24 hours and offered words of encouragement to both participants and helpers.

Retinoblastoma coordinator Sandra Staffieri made it in time to watch the first swimmers enter the water and was there on the sidelines to shout support on behalf of retinoblastoma families.

We also had the privilege of welcoming Dr James Elder of The Royal Children’s Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology. James was the specialist who first diagnosed Lochie some 13 years ago, so to have him attend to show support for the cause was fantastic. James and his wife Katie then returned on Sunday morning and donned their bathers to swim some laps.

The day was filled with laughter with kids playing on the jumping castle and having their faces painted all courtesy of wonderful sponsors.

Young retinoblastoma sufferer Riley Hill jumped in to swim some laps, “I can only do one lap he says to me”. Well two hours later mum and dad had to drag him out of the pool. What a great achievement Riley, well done!

We were all fed extremely well with the BBQ Boys turning over hundreds of sausages, hamburgers, dim sims, fairy floss and popcorn. A great effort considering they were juggling the cooking with swimming!

From the distance I could see a familiar face, Stefan Recupero. Stefan was diagnosed 13 years ago at the same time as Lochie. Whilst Lochie endured years of invasive treatment Stefan had his eye removed immediately. It was great to see them after many years.

As the day turned into darkness public access to the pool was closed and the atmosphere totally changed. The music was cranked up and the swimmers had another lease of life. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to swim when you have a music in your ears?

Midnight came and we had some more crazy people join our cause after a night out or after the kids were tucked up into bed, whilst the new brought energy, the kids were now struggling with fatigue. However getting them to rest in their off times was almost impossible.

Each shift became harder and harder, but not once did the kids complain! Even with cold wet towels and chlorine burn they kept swimming towards their goal.

As the sun started breaking through the windows we were well on the way to our 12 noon target.

The BBQ Boys turned the sausage sizzles into bacon and egg muffins and in rolled the Coffee Van. Boy did we need Coffee! Ahhhhhh coffee smells so good at 6am with no sleep!

Each hour saw new swimmers bringing with them the enthusiasm we needed to get us through the next couple of hours.

Father Bob Maguire made another appearance, still blown away by the sheer dedication these kids had shown over the past 20 odd hours.

When we first discussed the swimathon with the kids I introduced the idea of bringing in a friend of mine, Sam Valavanis. Sam lost his battle with retinoblastoma at the age of 4 when he had both of his eyes removed.

Sam is an active and intelligent young boy who jumped at the chance to hop in the pool with the kids.

Sam and dad Jim arrived around 11am in time to help us swim the final hour. The kids at this stage were bordering on exhaustion, combined with excitement for what they were about to complete. Not a great combination with so many kids!

The final lap saw us complete a gruelling 696 kilometres, falling short of our targeted 5,500 kilometres, however nonetheless a huge task with as little as 120 swimmers.

With that Lochie thanked everyone for helping support families and children affected by retinoblastoma. Sandra Staffieri spoke emotionally about how this has touched her and what an amazing experience it has been to see so many people wanting to help families.

The money raised (approximately $13,000 and still counting) will be used to fund an interactive website and educational DVD for newly diagnosed families.

I suppose in summing it all up Sam Valavanis, now 9, spoke beautifully. He merely stated that it had overwhelmed his family to think we were able to do this and help other sufferers. A very mature young man who basically brought the pool to tears, maybe the total exhaustion had something to do with it?

The 24 hour swimathon could not have been a success without the following sponsors:
UMS Pty Ltd, Wyndham Leisure and Events Centre, SupaTurf, Hoppers Crossing Sports Club, Foodbiz, Noone Imagwear, Grashan Printing, Pro Plumbing Pty Ltd, Waters Edge, Black Swan Motor Inn, CabFare, CAM Project Management, ACDP Earthworks Pty Ltd, Watton Street Optical, Coral Pools, Jens Gaunt Real Estate and Clarke Nicholas Constructions.

Bring on next year! We aim to make it bigger and better!

Ainsley Faust

More about Beyond Sight here.

Youth Homelessness Matters Day - April 18

On any night in Australia 105,000 people are homeless and nearly half of these are under the age of 25.

April 18 is Youth Homelessness Matters Day, raising awareness of the thousands of youths in Australia who live without permanent or sufficient accommodation.

Youth Homelessness Matters Day aims to raise awareness and support for this national problem, while celebrating the resilience of Australia’s youth. The event, as a part of National Youth Week, will also provide information on how the public can help with youth homelessness.

Being homeless doesn’t just mean sleeping rough on the streets, it includes any situation in which a child or young person has no permanent or secure accommodation of their own.

Many homeless youth fall into the secondary category of homelessness meaning they are more likely to be:

  • a young person in school who is sleeping on friends’ couches and moving from friend to friend
  • a young person in a youth shelter who is on income support; or
  • a young person who is in an apprenticeship or traineeship who is living in a tent
  • a young person or child who is accompanying a parent who is escaping domestic violence

In reality, many young people become homeless due to family breakdown, family violence and child abuse.

The Royal Children’s Hospital has facilitated a clinic for young homeless and marginalised people called the Young People’s Health Service since 1991. For more information visit Centre for Adolescent Health : Young People’s Health Service

Find out more about how you can get involved in Youth Homelessness Matters Day and help Australia’s most vulnerable young people get a better start.

Be a part of the solution

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