LAUNCH OF CHINESE COMMUNITY HEALTH PROJECT ON IMMUNISATION,
MY BABY’S DIARY

SPEECH BY DR RACHEL DAVID ON BEHALF OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND FAMILY SERVICES, DR. MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE

JAN-BO RESTAURANT
CHINATOWN, 40/44 LITTLE BOURKE STREET
MELBOURNE

7.30 PM
SUNDAY 24 NOVEMBER, 1996

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen. I would like to thank the Chinese Health Foundation for inviting me here this evening in place of the Federal Minister for Health and Family Services, Dr. Wooldridge, Who is unfortunately unable to attend.

We are here this evening principally to launch a new publication, My Baby’s Diary, a marvellous booklet aimed at promoting child health and childhood immunisation among people of Chinese ethnicity in Australia.

The Diary aims to give Chinese-speaking women information on how best to fellow the recommended National Health and Medical Research Council schedule of childhood immunisation, and help them work in partnership with their general practitioner to meet the health requirement of their children.

Lifting the rates of childhood immunisation, as many of you may be aware, is a great passion of the Minister’s. It is wonderful to meet others who share that passion.

Preventing our children from suffering vaccine preventable disease is something the Australia community hasn’t excelled in over recent years with immunisation rates dropping to as low as 33 per cent on some indicators. As immunisation rates have declined, we have had a commensurate increase in the incidence of diseases such as measles, whooping cough and rubella.

Dr. Wooldridge has made a personal commitment as Health Minister to try and turn these low immunisation rates around. In the August Budget, the Government committed additional funding for this task - $26.9 million was allocated to immunisation programs, an additional $2.5 million on top of existing funding commitment for immunisation

A range of initiatives have been implemented over the past three years to try to address the decline in immunisation rates. We provide free vaccine, we have run a wide-ranging public awareness and education campaign for both the public and medical profession. But it is abundantly clear that this is not enough. We need to do more. We need to look at new approaches.

Indeed new ideas like the Baby’s Diary. Might I say how exciting it is when communities take the initiative on health care issues, particularly preventative health issues.

A number of new initiatives are being investigated by Dr Wooldridge.

The Minister is urging his counterparts in other States and Territories to introduce legislation like that in NSW and the ACT which require evidence of immunisation history to be produced prior to enrolment in childcare, pre-school and primary school.

He is also urging the extension to other States and Territories of legislation like that in Victoria, South Australia and the ACT which allows nurses to administer vaccines.

He is also investigating better ways of delivering services to children and their parents, to take into account factors such as the accessibility of immunisation clines, particularly for working parents.

Other initiative being worked on include giving general practitioners incentives through the exiting Better Practice Program, to turn ordinary visits by parents and their children to their family doctor into immunisation opportunities-to improve not just the number of children immunised but also life the quality of advice doctor give to families on immunisation.

You may be aware that in the last two weeks, the National Health and Medical Research Council has endured a new Standard Vaccination Schedule that for the fist time emphasises the need for vaccinations throughout life, not just for children, The new schedule, which has been incorporated into My Baby’s Diary also introduces the concept of childhood vaccination milestones.

New recommendations for adult vaccination in the Schedule include routine influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations for people over 65 years of age.

Three milestones for childhood immunisation are set out in the Schedule, the fist is to complete the primary course of childhood vaccinations including triple antigen, polio and Hib vaccines by six months of age.

The second milestone is vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella which should be achieved at 12 months of age and the third milestone the booster dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis which should be reached at 18 months of age.

This Diary, is I believe one of many publications issued by the Chinese Health Foundation over the past two years. Other have include a Chinese translation of the Health Intermission Manual, and a Bilingual Directory of Chinese-speaking Health Providers.

I believe the Diary is a collaboration between the Foundation and five enthusiastic medical students from Monash University. These students, along with 14 others, are going to be presented with awards this evening for their contribution to the work of the Foundation.

Four of the other students are to receive awards for their work on another of the Foundation’s projects, the Breast Screen Information Project.

Ten students will receive awards for their work regular bilingual community volunteers for the Foundation.

I’m sure the practical public health learning experiences these students have taken part in will make a more lasting impression than many formal teaching experiences.

The Foundation has clearly worked hard to ensure that this Diary will prove a useful aid to mothers of Chinese ethnicity, teaming up with the Box Hill South Family Centre to test its effectiveness.

I take great pleasure in launching the publication and look forward to hearing about any new projects you are working on.

Department contact:
Lyn Dunlevy
Public Health Media Unit
Ph: (06) 289 8502