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March 2012 Newsletter
NEXT MEETING– March, Wednesday 21, 10.15am arrival for a 10.30am start at the MS Meeting Rooms on the right side of Steele Rudd Dr, off Baker St (opp. the USQ). Need a lift or wish to share a taxi to meetings or lunches? Phone Darryl to try and organise this with someone else in your area. Please bring a plate to share, stay for lunch and meet others living with MS. GUEST SPEAKER– Lyn Maher, HAAC Service Development Officer for the Darling Downs coordinates between Home & Community Care (HAAC) and service providers. Lyn will be talking on Toowoomba & District Transport Services for people with Disabilities and other health services provided in our region. CLUB GLENVALE (The Hockey Club) SOCIAL LUNCH Wednesday, March 14, 11am Boundary Rd, Glenvale. Please rsvp Darryl to assist on booking arrange-ments. LOW VISION INFO DAY Thursday, March 15, 10am-1pm Adaptive Technology, Mobility Aides, Support & Service Information & More. Guide Dogs Queensland, 270 Margaret St, Toowoomba For More Info Contact Meg Winterford on 4632 6944. ELECTION DAY APRIL 28. Don’t struggle trying to get to a polling booth, organise a postal vote now. (132326. IPSWICH WORKING & MS INFO SESSION Ipswich Library, Tuesday, March 10, 10am-12.30pm Contact Janice Wheeler 4638 9327 or 0408 186 690. IPSWICH FATIGUE SELF MANAGEMENT COURSE To be held Monday April 16-May 28 (6wks) from 9.30am-12.30pm at the WG Hayden Humanities Centre, 56 South St, Ipswich. Expressions of Interest Please Contact 1800 177 591. A HUGE THANK YOU to our members who wish to remain anonymous, who delivered many gorgeous gift boxed knitted goods (personally knitted) to our recent meeting for the support group to raffle off when the opportunity arises. Thank you for your kind generosity! Welcome to the support group. Trish & Nicole! Nicole found us on the support group website www.mssupport.org.au when recently moving to Toowoomba. We hope you both enjoy the great social and informative interaction that being part of a large group provides! BUNNINGS BBQ FUNDRAISER Warwick and family along with their team of volunteers (including Peter Coy from Brisbane! - thanking you!) raised a huge $1356 at their Bunnings Sausage Sizzle recently for the local MS community. A big thank you also goes to Paynes Meat Store on Humes St (opposite The Hooper Centre), Toowoomba who donated the large order of sausages and many Meals On Wheels volunteers including Haley Steinohrt who also helped guide Warwick and his team along the way in planning the successful day. Well Done Everyone! MEMBERS WANT TO HEAR YOUR STORY Do you have MS, care for a person with MS, know a person with MS? Would you like to share your story to fellow newsletter readers? We would love to hear from you! Email or phone Joanna for more details (contact list at end of newsletter). AS OF MARCH 1st, CHANGES WILL APPLY TO RULES FOR PEOPLE DRIVING WITH HEALTH CONDITIONS For more info contact The Department of Main Roads Darling Downs Region Toowoomba 4639 0777. Forms can be collected from your local transport office or visit www.tmv.qld.gov.au ASSESSING FITNESS TO DRIVE source AustRoads Each year in Australia more than 1,300 Australians are killed on our roads and over 32,000 are seriously injured. The total economic cost exceeds $18 billion annually and the social costs are also considerable. Whilst many factors contribute to safety on the road, driver health is an important consideration and drivers must meet certain medical standards to ensure that their health status does not increase the risk of a crash in which they or other road users may be killed or injured. In March 2012, new medical standards come into effect for drivers of private and commercial vehicles. The standards are contained in the document Assessing Fitness to Drive 2012, which replaces the previous standards (Assessing Fitness to Drive 2003). This website provides information to health professionals to assist them in assessing patients’ ability to drive as well as advising them of their legal responsibilities. www.austroads.com.au/about-austroads WANTED Postage Stamps & DL Envelopes Your donations to help post our newsletter are most appreciated! HOW DOES PREGNANCY AFFECT MS? Source Professor Pamela McCombe, September MS RESEARCH 2011 Update http://www.msra.org.au/how-does-pregnancy-affect-ms
In many women with MS, disease activity is reduced during pregnancy. This partial ‘remission’ of symptoms is often followed by more severe relapses following the birth of the baby. It is thought that this effect is caused by changes in the immune system of the mother during pregnancy. These changes are unique to pregnancy and allow the healthy survival and growth of the baby, even though the baby should appear ’foreign’ to the immune system. It is likely that this change is caused by the fluctuating hormone levels that occur during pregnancy.
The immune system is normally tightly regulated so that it protects against bacteria and viruses and yet does no harm to a person’s own body. However, in autoim-mune diseases such as MS, some factors, be they environmental or genetic, “tip the balance” in the way the immune system is regulated, allowing an uncontrolled attack on certain tissues or organs.
Pregnancy provides a natural model in which this imbalance appears to have been once again over-ridden, only in the case of pregnancy, in a protective way. It is anticipated that a deeper understanding of the systems and mechanisms involved will provide targets for future drug interventions for the treatment of autoimmune disease.
In light of recent work by others that suggests that as well as a short term benefit on MS during pregnancy, there seems to be a beneficial long term effect of having been pregnant on the outcome of MS, the team have also set up another complex experiment to determine the effects of multiple previous pregnancies before inducing the MS-like disease.
The long-term aim of this research is to identify molecules that might provide novel therapeutic targets for treatment of MS. It is with great excitement that we await the findings of this study.
Darryl has kindly purchased a copy of Toowoomba author Heyward Robert son’s new book, “Riding the Rough Road” and has offered if any members would like to read his copy they are welcome to call him to arrange this. Many books, DVD’s, video’s and information booklets are available for loan from our meeting rooms every month. A list of these items will soon be available to members. February Guest Speaker Natalie Walsh from MSQLD, informed the large group present at the recent meeting with the latest on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
For those that are not aware, Natalie is the MS QLD advocate, working across federal and state issues and is also a person with MS, diagnosed at 33. The MS Society also does some lobbying nationally. Natalie said “We have a very good relationship with the current government. There are many policy issues that MS Qld and MSA work too, and by working consultatively with the Government our goal is to obtain the best results for everyone.” Natalie was also involved in obtaining the Cooling Rebate for families living with MS and with the help of five friends (two with MS) has raised $125 000 for MS research (see pg 3).
Natalie also suggests we look at the MS QLD website to see the Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale talk online, especially in relation to working with MS. NDIS update § The NDIS is insurance not funding providing people with disabilities, their families and carers with the regular care, support, therapy and equipment they need. As a Medicare-type scheme, it will provide a secure and consistent pool of funds for these services and support. § Capacity, together with a willingness for the new scheme will need to be built at a local level. § 100,000 supporters to the NDIS registered their support last year – this is fantastic! However, this is only a fraction of the over 750,000 Australians living with a significant disability – along with their families and friends who have been waiting for this reform opportunity. Have you registered your support at www.everyaustraliancounts.com.au? § An Advisory Group has been established. The Advisory Group will steer the development of a NDIS by providing advice on progress with the foundation reforms required to fundamentally improve the system of care and support for Australians with disability and their carers. We look forward to everyone sharing in the information about a NDIS and being a part of the process! We are all a part of the creation process of this new scheme – learn about it and provide feedback to MSQ via natalie.walsh@msqld.org.au. Visit our source of information www.msqld.org and click on the link for future NDIS Updates or (MSQLD 1800 177 591. What is SMAC? source http://www.msqld.org
What is the aim of SMAC?
Who is our Toowoomba SMAC representative?
What is involved?
If you wish to contact Jon you can email him on carajon@bigpond.com.
Welcome to the support group Christie, we hope you enjoy the ability to be in contact with many people just like you who are just beginning their journey with MS and others who can share their experiences and advice when you need it most. Congratulations to Des and Christie who are expecting their first child in May! News from Toowoomba Advocate for People with MS and Disabilities Judy James After months of lobbying many politicians, Qld. Health Minister and Premier, Anti-Discrimination Commissioners, and Health and Complaints Commission, it has been announced that Qld. Health will repair the Baillie Henderson Indoor disability pool roof, and it will finished by the end of June. Other issues that are being pursued this year are a Disability Reform Amendment (to Jenny Macklin, Federal Minister for Disability Reform) regarding a CAAS Special Needs Application form, signed by one's doctor, for those people with disabilities who run out of funding before the end of the financial year, so they may obtain more funding to carry them through.
As well, other issues being pursued are the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and along with WWDA, we are pushing the Australian Government, in consultation with people with disabilities, to act immediately to develop and adopt, a National Violence & Disability Prevention Strategy, which wishes to help the capacity of indi-viduals and organisations to prevent violence against people with disabilities and to ensure appropriate responses when it does occur. Violence against people with disabilities occurs far too often in our own local district, as well as Australia wide.
http://www.wwda.org.au/WWDASubUNStudyViolenceWWDDec2011txt.rtf Anyone wishing to have their say on these matters, feel free to contact Judy. Darryl’s Tip – Use an electric toothbrush, it uses less energy! TOOWOOMBA MS SUPPORT GROUP CONTACTS President Darryl (4636 0406 email:d.connell57@optusnet.com.au V-President 1 Paul (4638 0878 email: pamcdon1@bigpond.com V-President 2 Shelley (4687 7273 email:shelleyann2010@hotmail.com Secretary Trish (4693 7232 email: trishgarry@harboursat.com.au Treasurer Steve (4634 3540 email: sdrayward@westnet.com.au Newsletter Joanna (4630 6861 email: tjleane@bigpond.com Also a contact for Parents with MS JANICE WHEELER, MS Qld. Service Co-ordinator Phone 4638 9327 email: janice.wheeler@msqld.org.au
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