Amuri Community Health Centre News - March 2019

Comings and Goings

There are a number of new faces at Amuri Health this year. Dr Vicky Chaplin joined us in January and works 4 days a week. Vicky has moved to Rotherham from ChCh with her 4 boys.

Jess Gibson has joined the nursing team. Jess has a wealth of experience from her work in Christchurch. Jess now lives in Hanmer with her husband and 2 boys.

Stacey Usmar and Angela Wells have both joined our Reception and Administration team this year and will be familiar faces to many.

We farewell Yvonne Cheney who leaves Amuri Health this month after many years on both reception and in administration/accounts. We wish Yvonne well for her future endevours and know she will enjoy having more time with family and Grandchildren

Recent Events

As the events of the last few weeks continue to sink in, it is important we continue look out for and support one another more than ever. Keep up communication with your neighbours, family members & friends.

It is normal and understandable to feel a range of emotions about what has happened. Its alright to feel numb, its alright to still feel shock, sadness, anger, lucky, hurt or scared. It is normal to feel physically affected, to startle easily, for your heartbeat to race, to feel aches and pains and to have difficulty concentrating. To feel tired, agitated and tense are also normal responses to trauma and stress.

Everybody copes with these things differently, there is no right or wrong response. We want to reassure you its ok to feel these things and its also ok to ask for support to get through.

You can call or text 1737 at anytime to talk to a trained counsellor 24/7. If these feelings persist or you would like to discuss things further with us please don’t hesitate to contact Amuri Health 315 6328 to chat with a nurse or to make an appointment with the doctor.

Measles Update

We would like to thank the community for their patience as we have worked through our recall lists and kept our vaccination priorities in line with the changing directives we continue to receive from the health authorities.

We understand the frustration around the changing priority groups and the rescheduling or delaying for some groups. It is important all receive their funded vaccines to ensure immunity but please understand we need to ensure immunity for the most vulnerable first.

The current directives focus on those a

• Age 12mths—13years with no previous MMR vaccination
• * Children and adults age 14-28yrs with no previous MMR vaccination
• Ring fencing infants and others ‘at risk’ who cannot be vaccinated
• Occupational groups with frequent contact with children who have no MMR vaccination history.

We will continue to recall people in as per these groups and we will notify the 28-50yr age group when more supplies of the vaccine become available.

It is important to note that we do live within a very well immunised population and latest information states that 90% of the population reach immunity level after one dose of MMR.

Flu Vaccines

Flu vaccine are due to arrive the first week of April, however it has been incredibly busy for the health services over recent weeks and months and that while Propharma and the Ministry of Health do their best to get the vaccines to general practice by the 1st of April, there may be a short delay.

We will advise as soon as the vaccines are available on our website, Facebook page and in the Citizen and Peril.

2019 Flu vaccines are FREE for

• Those 65yrs and older,
• Those with Chronic health conditions— Cancer, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Diabetes, Renal disease, previous splenectomy etc (contact us if unsure)
• Children and young people under 18yrs of age
• Pregnant women.

For any further information/advice please call the nurses 315 6328

Grief Support

Grief is a natural process and all of us will experience this in some form during our lives. Grief manifests in many ways that can be short or long term. Grief can also be triggered by many and varied events, death of a loved one, a new medical diagnosis, trauma, job loss, relationship breakdown.

At Amuri Community Health we wish to recognise this process and the feelings, emotions and stress it can place on individuals and family. To be able to provide support for those going through the grief process we have developed a grief support package for those registered with our practice.

The grief support package allows for 5 funded extended 30min consults with the Doctor or Nurse.

We understand that the grief process is not limited by time, grief can be re-triggered by anniversaries, birthdays, social events etc and due to this there is no time limit on when these consults must be used up by.

If you or yourself know of anyone who may benefit from this support please get in touch with us or encourage others to. If you are booking an appointment for this package please let reception know at time of booking.

The team at Amuri Community Health