NAC Newsletter December 2023

This year has been an extremely busy year as we progressed our work under the new funding grant from the Australian Government Department of Health. In our final newsletter for the year, we share with you our highlights for 2023.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Allergy Council Directors and Co-chairs, our Project Co-leads, the members of our Project Working Groups, our Allergy 250K peer mentors and all the stakeholders including consumers, who have engaged with us this year and contributed to the implementation of the National Allergy Strategy, including volunteering their time to participate in Allergy 250K camps.

In the past year we have achieved the following...

Shared Care for Allergy project

• 1 overarching working group and 2 subgroups established to support the work
• 8 in person consultations held with 118 participants
• 12 virtual consultations held with 99 participants
• 4 consumer focus groups with 34 participants
• 2 national surveys conducted
• 288 subscribers to the Shared Care for Allergy Bulletin
• Two-day workshop held to talk about what we will implement in the coming year and how we will implement

Nip allergies in the Bub food allergy prevention project

• Re-designed the website to make finding information easier and refreshed the look of the website
• 2 new animations about how to use moisturisers and cortisone creams and ointments
• 1 new guide about moisturisers and cortisone creams and ointments for health professionals
• 1 systematic review of eczema guidelines
• 126,852 website visits
• 102,040 bookmarks distributed
• 8,547 downloads of Food ideas for babies around 6 months
• 3,491 downloads of the National Allergy Council Recipe booklet
• 20 social media posts

Schools and children’s education and care (Allergy Aware) project

• Re-designed and refreshed the look of the website and added a new section for camps
• 2,486 downloads of the Best practice guidelines for children’s education and care
• 2,494 downloads of the Best practice guidelines for schools
• 4 new guides for parents and carers
• 37,312 website visits
• 23 social media posts

Food service project

• 22,620 course enrolments in an All about Allergens course
• 296,745 visits to the Food Allergy Training resource hub
• 15,941 visits to Food Allergy Aware and Food Allergy Education websites
• 2 new animations about precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) for consumers and food service workers
• 4 conference presentations
• 36 social media posts
• Updated the All about Allergens booklet for food service
• Collaboration with NSW Food Authority to develop a food allergen management module for Food Safety Supervisor training

Allergy 250K youth project

• 10 video chats held with young adults
• 2nd peer mentor camp held in Melbourne
• Updated and delivered peer mentor training
• Trained 12 Allergy 250K peer mentors
• 1 overnight camp for school-aged teens held on the Sunshine Coast
• 96 social media posts

Drug allergy and health projects

• Developed a webinar and supporting ‘how to guide’ for health professionals working in allergy to upload patient allergy information to My Health Record from their clinical software
• Progressive discussions with the Agency terminology team about standardised allergy and adverse reaction terminology to be used in allergy alerts and electronic records

Note: Statistics reported are for the past year from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023

Government response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Allergies and Anaphylaxis

On 18 October 2023, the government’s response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Allergies and Anaphylaxis was tabled in parliament - https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Health_Aged_Care_and_Sport/Allergiesandanaphylaxis/Government_Response

We wish you a safe and Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

FREE posters and bookmarks

The following National Allergy Council resources are available free of charge (including free postage) from the Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia online shop:

• National Allergy Council bookmarks
• Nip allergies in the Bub bookmarks and posters
• Allergy 250K bookmarks and posters
• All about Allergens online training bookmarks
• The Usual Suspects poster (developed with the NSW Food Authority and Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia)
• Allergy Aware resource hub for Schools and Children’s education and care bookmarks

Stay up to date with National Allergy Council projects

Learn more about our projects.

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