2019
Nutrition and Burns Presented by: Michelle Cork, Senior Dietitian, State Adult Burns Unit WA
Michelle’s take-home message is the importance of good communication with both our burn’s patients and the burn’s team. Having 1:1 contact with our burn’s patients regularly means we can modify our treatment plan as frequently as needed. But it can be difficult to get time with a burn’s patient, they…
2019
More Than Meets The Eye: 2019 DAA Conference
Congratulations go to DAA for speaking out on challenging themes at the “More Than Meets The Eye” conference last week (Aug 12-14, 2019). The themes were Indigenous health, mental health and childhood health. DAA chose to focus on groups who are vulnerable and need the full attention of policy makers…
2019
Nutritional frailty Presented by: Professor Renuka Visvanathan PhD, FRACP, FANZSGM
Anorexia of ageing affects approximately a quarter of older people and is a major contributor to both a reduction in protein intake and weight loss. Weight loss in older people is often associated with loss of muscle mass and strength which contribute to frailty. Professor Visvanathan described the phenotypic method…
2019
Designing effective printed education materials Presented by: Dr Kelly Lambert, PhD, AdvAPD
Kelly provides us with the stark facts about literacy and health literacy in Australia and New Zealand, and it isn’t good news. Over 45% of the population don’t have adequate literacy and numeracy skills. This has huge implications for the way we communicate our health messages. Kelly guides us through…
2019
Practising as an eating disorder dietitian Presented by: Maureen O’Connor, APD
From the first of November this year, a new Medicare item will be introduced for patients with eating disorders. This means that people with eating disorders could potentially be rebated by Medicare for up to 40 psychological and 20 dietetic sessions a year. How do we ensure we are professionally…
2019
Why kids don’t need ‘growing up milk’ an interview with Evelyn Volders, AdvAPD
Paula Goodyer
If you want to make a paediatric dietitian’s eyes roll, just say ‘toddler milk’. “It can displace food because it’s so easy for toddlers to fill up with a drink and because it’s sweet it helps drive a preference for sweet foods. About half of all three year olds now…
2019
Positive ageing Presented by: Associate Professor Christina Bryant
Some of the most negative aspects of ageing are related to physical decline- bone loss, hair loss, muscle loss- loss of strength, endurance and flexibility, stiffening of blood vessels and arteries. Christina explains that growing older is not always negative. In Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2015 two-thirds of…
2019
Increasing muscle mass Presented by: Simone Austin, AdvSD, APD
Muscles are vital for our existence. We need skeletal muscle to move, smooth muscle for digestion, respiration and blood flow and cardiac muscle for heart function. Maintaining or increasing muscle mass is important not just for athletes who may want to bulk up to improve their performance but for anyone…
2019
Legumes Presented by: Natalie Figueira, APD
Legumes tick all the boxes, they are tasty, nutritious, cheap and sustainable. The United Nation’s even designated 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. Despite all this most of us either don’t eat enough of them or avoid them. People are generally confused about what they are- even the dietary…
2019
Spinal cord injury: case studies Presented by: Paula Carroll, Senior Clinical Dietitian
Paula presents two case studies on spinal cord injury. The first is the acute case of a 20-year-old man who sustained a C5-6 translocation fracture after a trampoline accident. In this case Paula describes the trauma of a life changing event and the continuous nutrition intervention during his hospitalisation which…