BHN Women’s Health Week Education Session
Women’s Health Week Education Session
Women’s Health Week has officially started, running from the 4th to 8th September. This year the focus is on supporting women to make informed decisions about their health by providing information that’s easy to understand.
The theme ‘Grow your knowledge’ will feature daily topics during this week around health checks and screening, hormones, fertility, nutrition and much more.
To launch Women’s Health Week we held a free Women’s Health Education session on Monday at Clarinda Community Centre where our resident nurse Korieza Maloney informed attendees about the three free cancer screening programs that are available in Australia – Bowel, Breast and Cervical.
The message was clear, encouraging women to take up screening opportunities when eligible to help detect and diagnose cancer earlier, start treatment earlier and increase their chance of survival.
Participants were very engaged, interacted, asked lots of questions and shared their own stories with the group. They were able to see and feel the demo kits and even make their own “poo” model out of play doh to practice doing a bowel cancer screen test!
Goodie bags were provided with information about screening and a few pampering items too, thanks to Terry White Chemist at Thrift Park and Breast Screen Victoria.
Australia has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world, yet only 43% of people eligible actually undertake the home screen test. The FREE kit is sent to the address linked with your Medicare card, so please ensure your details are kept up to date.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer found in women (apart from non-melanoma skin cancer) but can be successfully treated if detected early. FREE mammograms are available to those aged 50 to 74 every two years, however women aged 40 to 49 or over 74 years can also request a free mammogram to screen for cancer. For more information or to book, please visit https://www.breastscreen.org.au/
It is now also known that cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable and that Australia is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035. It is recommended that women and those people with a cervix aged 25 to 74 who have ever been sexually active be screened every five years. Screening is FREE and self-collection is now available at your healthcare provider, meaning you can perform the test yourself in a private space and hand over the sample to your doctor for testing.
For more resources about cancer screening, please visit the below websites:
https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/national-bowel-cancer-screening-program
Women’s Health Week Walk
This week we participated in another fun Women’s Health Week activity by facilitating a walking session for a local vulnerable women’s group.
We took a bus to the beautiful Karakook park, where the group went on a 30 minute nature walk before heading to , undertake a mindfulness activity.
There are many health benefits of walking and particularly in natural surroundings. Immersing yourself in nature while walking for just 30 minutes a day can do wonders for our mental health and offers soothing comfort during our busy and stressful lives.
Some of the benefits of walking in nature include:
- improve your mood
- reduce feelings of stress or anger
- help you take time out and feel more relaxed
- improve your physical health by exercising
- raise levels of vitamin D, boosting your immune system
- Enhancing creativity and focus.
Everyone enjoyed the day thoroughly and some new friendships were made.
A big thank you to Kingston Council for supplying the food and bus. Thank you also to Terry White Chemist, Thrift park, Chemist Warehouse, Heatherton and Office Works in Mentone for their kind donations that helped fill our goodie bags.