Health & Wellbeing

Mission Australia saluted grandparents who are raising grandchildren during National Families Week from 15-21 May 2020, and acknowledged they have a unique set of circumstances to deal with in the aftermath of the bushfires and COVID-19 restrictions. The charity organisation has been dropping off care packs outside the family homes of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren participants, including 84-year-old Fred Baxter from Sussex...

Life is starting to swing back towards normal following our COVID-19 isolation. Some of these changes I'm thrilled to meet again, such as watching my daughter happily slurp on her first hot chocolate in a cafe for a while, cosy fireside dinners with friends, and seeing how productive I am at work when both kids are out of the house. As...

When Marilyn Wales walked into Temora District Hospital in 1970 she was as wide-eyed and fresh-faced as any aspiring nurse could be. She was just 16 years old – too young for formal training. But she would start on the wards as a cadet nurse. The investment in her training has paid off. Not only did Marilyn put in 25 good...

Efforts to stay one step ahead of COVID-19 has seen the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) hit the road with a mobile van visiting towns in the region to test residents for the virus. With 243,228 residents spread across 125,242 square kilometres, there is a lot of territory to cover, but after two weeks of the initiative, it has proven a...

If you live in the Snowy Valleys local government area, you would be forgiven if you felt a bit wide-eyed and bushy tailed. It’s been quite a year there. But help is on the horizon. A program that’s had success in assisting people to get physically and mentally back on track in the fire-affected NSW southeast – and has the...

Australia has flattened the COVID-19 curve and managed to get transmission of the virus under control, but as winter approaches, Australians are being warned about a second outbreak that could be more deadly and spread more rapidly than the first. Although the second wave of the Spanish flu – a common comparison point for COVID-19 – was much deadlier than the...

Did you know that from 1 May 2020, it's mandatory for all aged care workers and visitors to an aged care facility in Australia to have received the flu vaccine? Along with continuing to respond to the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Government's response to the flu this year has been early and hefty, with $80 million invested in providing...

Students at the University of Canberra and the Australian National University are finding creative ways to address the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in hospitals. University of Canberra students Bryce Cronin and Jed Hodson recently won the Protecting Vulnerable Peoples Challenge of the Australian Computer Society’s Flatten The Curve Hackathon by using a 3D printer to produce face shields. The...

Students from Young North Public School were treated to a cooking class from celebrity chefs Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and Manu Feildel last week. They also heard from former Canberra Raiders NRL player Alan Tongue, and next week will listen to artist Ben Quilty and environmental educator Costa Georgiadis, among others. The online initiative from the NSW Department of Education...

Canberra Airport has become the first in the country to install temperature screening technology in its departure terminal, a COVID-19 measure that doctors hope is taken up by other transport terminals as an extra way to rein in the virus. The technology, first developed by electronic security firm EOS Australia for use in schools around the world, measures all human forehead...

Eurobodalla Shire Council has announced dogs will be allowed 24/7 access to designated 'timeshare' beaches from 1 May until 1 November. For the next six months, the off-season timesharing conditions will be in effect at designated dog exercise areas. Dogs will be allowed on timeshare beaches – on or off-leash – at all times under the care and control of...

It was nine years ago that Peter and Emma Cockburn from Young lost their 15-month-old daughter Georgina in a driveway accident. Peter had arrived home from work and was reversing his builder's trailer into the garage of the family home when the curious tot, the youngest of four children, was fatally injured. Since then the couple has courageously and doggedly...

One new case of COVID-19 has been identified in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District bringing the total number of positive diagnoses to 46, as police continue to enforce social distancing restriction across the region. lt's the first positive result in Southern NSW for some time as infection rates in both the Southern NSW and Murrumbidgee Local Health Districts have held...