Thursday, March 29, 2012

Petrol Sniffing

Communities fear resurgence of petrol sniffing
Updated March 09, 2012 17:51:02
Photo: It is believed about 40 people, including children as young as 12 years old, are now sniffing petrol on a regular basis at Katherine. (ABC TV)
An Indigenous community group says a petrol sniffing epidemic in the Northern Territory town of Katherine is getting worse.
Kalano community president Lisa Mumbin says more people from remote areas are coming to the town, 250 kilometres south of Darwin, because they find it easier to access petrol.
Ms Mumbin says action needs to be taken to combat the problem.
She says a forward step would be to introduce low aroma Opal fuel into Katherine and surrounding areas.
"There is going to have to be a direction taken here, maybe in Opal fuel," she said.
"It is a very serious issue.
"It is not like alcohol, petrol is really different and the effect is so great."
It is believed about 40 people, including children as young as 12 years old, are now sniffing petrol on a regular basis in the town.
A local resident says his daughter has been sniffing for more than four years after becoming addicted at 13 years of age.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-09/petrol-sniffing-outbreak-roundup/3879948


Community groups unite to tackle petrol sniffing

Posted March 29, 2012 17:33:46
Katherine conference aims to tackle petrol sniffing       
Photo: Many voices: A meeting hears proposals to embrace Opal fuel in Katherine to combat petrol sniffing. (ABC: Emma Masters.)
A collection of community interest groups from a Top End town have moved to support the introduction of a petrol that doesn't give sniffers a "high".
About 70 representatives gathered in Katherine to discuss how to address a spike in petrol sniffing in the region.
The meeting heard that children as young as six were known to be sniffing petrol in one community.
A health worker moved for the group to push for the rollout of low aromatic Opal fuel in the town, about 300 kilometres south of Darwin.
Katherine Town Council chief executive officer David Lawyer told the group the issue needs to be put to the wider community.
The group is expected to vote on the proposal at a later date.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-29/katherine-petrol-sniffing-meeting/3921400?section=nt

The Drinking Culture

There is currently a huge drinking issue among the indigenous aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and in the past year the NT Government have put bans and restrictions in place to combat this growing health, social and criminal problem that has resulted from the abuse of alcohol.  There are high suicide rates, child abuse, domestic violence, anti-social behaviour, renal & heart disease, fetal alcohol syndrome, just to name a few, all linked back largely to alcohol misuse.

Here in Katherine, it is usual to see a lot of indigenous people lined up outside bottles stores during the weekdays waiting for them to open at 2pm.  Then a few hours later the police are out picking up people and taking them to the sobering up shelter or bringing them in under "Protective Custody" to the watch house cells.  Drinking in a public place is banned in all Northern Territory towns and people found drinking have their alcohol tipped out and can potentially receive a large fine. 

Protective Custody is for people to be kept safe or to keep others safe from them and is largely for people who are rolling drunk, although some people who have mental health issues will also be taken into protective custody until they can be assessed by a mental health professional.  People in Protective Custody are in custody and have to remain in the cells but they aren't arrested and therefore they are released generally after 6 hours.  It's these people that I will largely be working with at the watch house.

If you drive around the shops in the evening here in Katherine it is full of drunk Aborigines.  The problem isn't helped by people receiving their benefits, including land grants, spread over different days of the week.  For most people they receive a constant stream of money all week and as such, the money makes it easy for alcoholics to always have money for grog.  It really is a sad and sorry site and sure does put the NZ drinking issue in perspective.

The restrictions around alcohol were brought in just last year and include not only banning alcohol consumption in public places but also with restrictions on the sale on alcohol.  In Katherine the trading hours for the purchase of alcohol are:

Monday to Friday
2:00pm – 8.00pm
Saturday and Public Holidays
Noon - 8:00pm
Sundays (Hotels only)
2:00pm -8:00pm

When someone purchases alcohol a photo ID is required regardless of your age so it can be scanned to see if you are on the Banned Drinking Register. People who commit alcohol-related offences or who are taken into protective custody three times in three months can be banned from purchasing, possessing or consuming alcohol for up to 12 months. By scanning a photo ID, the Banned Drinker Register enables liquor licensees at the point of sale to identify banned drinkers and enforce the bans.  Despite these restrictions and bans the alcohol issue in the indigenous population here in the NT is still massive.

They also have an active campaign in the Northern Territory to educate people about alcohol misuse. Though as the large number of people I see live on the street (or 'long-grassing' as it's referred to here), then it's unlikely the people who really need to see these adverts ever actually see them.  They also don't often attend health clinics and in some cases the watch house nurse may be the only health professional they have seen in ages.

A couple of my favorite public health campaign adverts:

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Delayed start

Tonight was meant to be the first night with the clinic all up and running and with me on the shop floor, so to speak.  However, the date has been pushed back to Friday night now as we are still waiting on the oxygen, computer and phone to arrive.  It seems things happen very slowly over here.

On the plus side the clinic is fully stocked and looking really good now.  For those of you that are nurses and doctors you may be interested to know what is in the clinic.  To be honest, I was shocked at just how much flash equipment I would have to play with.  There is an adjustable medical couch, a vital signs monitor with SpO2 attached that can record a persons names & details and print data out.  There are two sinks, beach, locked drawers and cupboards, desk, AED & Emergency Kit (with O2), portable drug/dressing trolley, huge high end fax, scanner, copier; and of course, the phone and computer when they arrive.

In the Northern Territory a lot of nurses have to work without a doctor so medications for each area are gazetted by the Medical Director for use in each particular area.  It works similarly to standing orders in NZ but they don't require a doctor to chart them or sign them off once they are gazetted.  In my area the medication that I have been gazetted for is:

Adrenaline 1mg/1ml Injection
Aspirin 300mg soluble tabs
Glycogen 1mg Injection
Glyceryl Trinitrate (GTN spray)
Lignocaine 1% Adren 1:100,000 Injection
Midazolam 5mg/1ml Injection (plastic amps for intranasal use)
Paracetamol 500mg Suppositories
Paracetamol 500mg tablets
Salbutamol 100mcg Inhaler 
Thiamine 100mg.1ml Injection

The thing I found interesting is the medication is gazetted for use but is not charted as such.  Therefore, it's up to the nurse to look up usage, dosing, contraindications or protocols for use.  It really is not that different from Nurse Practitioners prescribing in NZ.  The medical community here really can't be as precious about such things due to the lack of doctors and the remoteness. So most nurses working in any community health or remote settings here will all have a list of gazetted medications they are allowed to give.

Anyway, all going well we hopefully will be up and running by Friday night.  In the meantime, I am enjoying a day blobbing out at home.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Crocs, Snakes & Creepy Crawlies

Ahahaha, I knew with a title like that you would all be hanging on to the edge of your seats thinking "Thank God it's her and not me there".   Basically, when you think of Aussie, especially the Northern Territory that's what you think of. Well, that and it's, too HOT!

Actually, the truth is I have been here almost 3 weeks now and I haven't seen any of the above mentioned animals and I feel a little let down to be honest.  Yes, there are bats here and beautiful birds but I am still to even see a gecko.  Not saying that if I wandered down the road to the Katherine River and went for a swim I wouldn't find quite a few crocs, or if I visited the marshlands around the place...... but seriously, you would have to be some kind of mad to do that. 

In my mind before I came, I thought I would find snakes in all the trees and geckos crawling everywhere.  Well, all I see in the trees are bats.  I haven't even seen a spider.  There are very few webs outside and no daddy longlegs hiding in the corners as the houses all have screens on all the windows and doors to prevent insects, snakes or geckos from desending upon us.  Far more crawlies in NZ than I've seen here.

I did see a big tree frog on the first night here as it was on my friends car when she picked me up from the airport, but that's it.  In fact, the tree frog then had my friend telling me of how I need to keep the toliet seat down or frogs come up the toliet and into the house.  She had this happen one night while in Katherine.  It's really not the frogs that are the issue as much as the snakes that may be chasing them.  I bet that made a few of you quiver?!?!  It sure made me a bit nervous going to the toilet the first week I was here.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

First few weeks in NT

I thought I better write another blog so you all know I'm alive and well here in the Northern Territory.

I have been over here now for two weeks and two days and am not sick of Australians as yet.  In fact, I do really like it here.  The culture in the Northern Territory is very laid back and everyone has been so friendly and helpful that it's made the transition really easy.

I spent the first week in Darwin doing all the HR stuff and having a brief induction on what the job I will be doing entails, including learning how to use the Primary Care Information Systems, and also what will be required of me as far as setting up the clinic in Katherine.  Also present at the induction was the nurse employed to do the same job as me but who will be based at the Alice Springs Watch House.  He was a lovely black Zimbabwean man who has lived in Alice with his wife and children for the past 5 years where he worked as an ED nurse.  He spent the week telling me many funny tales of the indigenous population he has encountered in Alice. Oh apparently, the politically correct way to refer to Aboriginal people is as "indigenous" and not as aborigines or definately NOT as 'abos' like many in New Zealanders call them. 

I find the cultural divide very distinct over here compared to NZ.  While the Northern Territory is very multi-cultural, the indigenous people seem to live separately from everyone else and don't much socailise with the white community unless there is a need.  I mentioned this to one of the Australians and they disagreed with me. Saying that there were many indigenous people working in Government jobs and cohabitating.  This might be so, but from what I have seen it is only those indigneous people of mixed race.  I have not seen a dark indigneous person walking down the street with a white person, nor have I seen them sitting at the same table having a coffee or a meal.  It fact, you don't see them in cafes at all. So it's clear that this persons definition of integration is somewhat different to mine.



Anyway, last weekend I drove my new car to Katherine. Yes, I had to buy a car when I arrived as it's essential in order to work shift work in a remote community.  The speed limit here is 130 km though I was too scared to go above 120km.  Especially as I saw dead wallibies (or baby roos) that had been runover on the road as well as lots of pot holes.  My car doesn't have 'roo bars' either, apparently an essential thing to have if your doing a lot of remote driving. When I get back to NZ, I will likely clock up the speeding fines as the town/city limit here is 60kms also.  I got my NT license too this week.  It was just a matter of taking in the NZ one and they did the eye test, took a photo and gave me my NT licence on the spot.  However, you are able to drive on your NZ licence here for up to three months before you're expected to get the NT one. 

I really am liking Katherine.  It is very sunny with a lot less rain than Darwin and a lot less humidity despite only being about a 3 hour drive away.  The heat is around 30 to 35 degrees most days but it's sunny and dry so doesn't feel as awful as the Darwin atmosphere.  Also lets not forget I have air-conditioning everywhere I go which is wonderful.  :)

There are fruit bats everywhere here and when you go outside at night you see them flying through the sky.  It's very weird!!!  They also poo black tar like acidic spots everywhere and have a horrible smell about them.  But mainly they aren't such an issue as they are high in the trees and sleep in the day.  Though Katherine has regular invasions of bats and they become a real health concern, not to mention people get little sleep when there in an invasion.



I have spent this week in Katherine meeting people and various agencies here introducing myself, informing them of this new position that has been created at the Police Watch House and trying to create pathways for referrals etc.  I still have many places to visit but between times have been trying to set up the clinic.  That in itself has been a bigger job than I realised it would be.  I walked into a newly finished clinic last Monday which just had a desk, photocopier and medical couch, so I have had to run around ordering stock, chasing up people to get my oxygen, bio-hazard bins, computer, phone, chair etc and also sweet talk police to get them to help this useless nurse assemble some of the gear and attach soap & paper towel dispensers to walls etc, etc.  I have even managed to get St Johns Ambulance to come in and set up the emergercy bag.  Basically, the clinic needs to be ready to run from this Wednesday night.  So fingers crossed it's all sorted by then!!!

Anyway, I spend most late afternoons skyping the kids back home which means I haven't had much time to really miss them as yet. Though people say it's around the 4th week that it really gets hard...... we will see!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Cyclones anyone.......

Right, so after only a few days of being here, there was a cyclone warning.  Quite exciting for someone like myself who has never encountered such a thing before.  On Tuesday we were in a Category 2 Cyclone Alert and they closed the schools here in Darwin for the day.  However, the cyclone changed direction and by Tuesday night the alert was lifted. Again today we were issued with a cyclone warning.  It sure does seem these warnings are going to be a part of life for those of us living on the northern coastline of Australia, especially between the months of November to April.  Though it's really not at all suprising when you think of the destruction and deaths that occurred in 1974 on Christmas Eve/Day when Cyclone Tracy basely all but flattened the City of Darwin. 

Tracy killed 71 people, caused $837 million in damage (1974 AUD) and destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of houses. Tracy left more than 41,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless prior to landfall and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people. Most of Darwin's population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney, and many never returned to the city. After the storm passed, the city was rebuilt using more modern materials and updated building techniques.

 

It's impossible to imagine living through such devastation. Yet a lot of the locals who are in their 40's and over lived through Cyclone Tracy and so take cyclone warnings as serious business which really explains why it dominates the local news here a lot too.  I do remember studying Cyclone Tracy in Geography at High School but I don't think the enormity of it or human cost really hit home until now. When you look at Darwin now rebuilt, I can't help but wonder about what the new Christchurch rebuild will be like.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Day 1

So I am in Darwin after a long journey via Brisbane.  In Brisbane you have to catch the bus from the international terminal to the domestic terminal and so I when I stepped outside into the heat of Brisbane, which was 28 degrees, it was such a dry heat.  After being in the air conditioned plane and terminal it felt so amazing to feel the warmth of the sun. 
I guess unlike New Zealand, it must not be against the law to talk on your cell phone while driving as the bus driver talked on his most of the journey between the terminals.  It actually scared the crap out of me, as he swung the bus around the corners with one hand.
The plane was delayed getting into Darwin by half an hour so it didn’t arrive until 1am and with my body clock still on New Zealand time it was actually the early hours of the morning by the time I made it to bed.  Felt like I had just worked a night shift and then some.
When I stepped out of the Darwin terminal into the night air, which was also 28 degrees at that time, there was a really noticeable difference from the Brisbane air, just much more humid and harder to breathe.  However, I was quiet cold prior to that.  It seems because the Northern Territory is so hot everyone here lives in a fridge.  The plane trip here was icy cold, the terminal cold and the motel cold also.  In fact, I had to turn the temperature up when I arrived in my room as I’m not use to living like that.
Anyway, so far all is good.  I am off shopping with my friend today to buy and cell phone and other essentials so this will really be the test of whether I can handle the heat, currently 31 degrees out.


UPDATE:  survived a day shopping due largely to the wonderful air conditioning they have here.    I brought a cheap $29 Nokia cell phone with a $30 sim card (that has $30 credit also) with Optus.  It costs 4 cents a mintue to ring any New Zealand landline on it and 20 cents to ring any New Zealand mobile.  That is as 'cheap as chips' compared to the cost of calling from New Zealand.  It means I can ring home and talk for an hour on my cell here for only $2.40.  AMAZING!!  Though to be honest I am probably more likely to skpe the family for free as I have already done today :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Anxiety builds

One more sleep until I'm on the plane and off to Australia.  I am flying from Palmy to Wellington in the morning, then to Brisbane, and finally to Darwin.  Arriving in Darwin at 12.30am (Aussie time) on Saturday.  So I will be totally buggered by the time I get there.  Thank goodness my wonderful friend is picking me up from the airport there.
What a crazy few weeks this has been.  Who knew there was so much to do when shifting countries (even though it's only Australia).  Gives me a new appreciation of how hard it must be for those immigrants who shift here from the other side of the world, especailly those who leave their cultures and for whom English is a second language.

I have hardly managed to catch up with any of my friends or work colleagues before leaving, though I did manage to see all the family which was good.  There just isn't enough hours in the day.  I had planned to have a relaxing week this week before I start induction in Darwin next Monday, but well that was just a dream.  I wasn't this busy when I was working.

My son was off to school camp on Monday, though he is home now, and Greg's grandmother also died at the beginning of this week.  Her funeral was today in North Canterbury making attending it not an option for us. We did however attend Greg's uncles funeral last month and saw a lot of the family then.  Poor Greg has had regular family funerals to attend the whole time we have been married.  He said to me yesterday, "I'm so over funerals and burying family."  His grandmother was 101 years old and a remarkable woman, who outlived most of her own childern.  The funeral was huge apparently and she had a good send off which doesn't make us feel quite so bad about missing it.

Tonight, we had a meal & movie family night with just Greg, the kids and I and have tried to make the time special.  We are also keeping them home from school tomorrow so they can see me off at the airport.  I'm really not looking forward to the goodbyes and didn't sleep that well last night thinking about it.  Anyway, they are tucked up in bed now and I'm heading off to work now to use the scales to weigh my bags (the Clinical Nurse Manager's GREAT idea).  I have no idea if I'm over or under the 23kgs and don't fancy repacking or paying for extra baggage at the airport.

Anyway, my next post will be from Australia.  Bon voyage New Zealand!!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Two camps of opinion

I guess when we make a decision to step out of our comfort zones and try something new it's normal to have moments of doubt.  Moments of wondering if our futures are truly pre-determined or whether we write the chapters as we go.  Is going to work in Australia something that I was always meant to do or is it me riding some small wave?  When a door opens, are you a person who gets excited and steps through it, or do you spend the next few months praying or meditating on it, waiting for a sign or asking God for guidance before committing to it?
I have always been more of a 'walk through the door' or 'seize the moment' kind of girl.  Knowing that if things are not meant to be, I will soon find out.  'Nothing ventured, nothing gained'.  So I shouldn't be suprised that people are going to have differences of opinion and some are going to be a little more pessimistic.  What is suprising is my lack of tolerance towards such people.

Since I announed the decison to go, peoples reactions tend to fall in one of two groups..  Those who are sooo supportive and excited for me and who ride the wave along side me, and then the other group, who I can tell from their initial facial expressions what is coming.  They generally begin by saying, IT'S SOOO HOT over there and continue to tell me all the negative things about such an experience, as though they have no idea I have not already done the pros and cons list for myself.  One person was less subtle and just said, 'You're mad'.  :)

While all such people profess to caring about me and not meaning any offence by their comments, such negative comments sure do begin to wear you down.  So for those well meaning friends of mine (whom I love), if I have come across a little 'pissed off' at you, or seemed less than patient over the last few weeks, I do indeed apologise.