NAC Newsletter June 2023
World Food Safety Day 7 June 2023
This year World Food Safety Day promotes food safety standards which help to make sure that what we eat is safe and prevents foodborne illness. Our communication strategy will draw attention to how food allergen management is not included in Australian food safety standards and promote our All about Allergens online training for food service workers. We will focus specifically on training for food safety supervisors, which is mandatory for all food businesses in Australia from December 2023. Over the coming months we will be engaging with state and territory food safety authorities to advocate for food allergen management training to be mandatory for all food safety supervisors.
Find out more about the All about Allergens online training courses.
Shared Care for Allergy project
We have now completed more than half of our community consultations. To date we have engaged with people in Queensland, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Tasmania and South Australia through a combination of face-to-face and online consultation sessions. Through these consultations we have engaged with, and connected, more than 100 community members, healthcare professionals, government and peak professional body representatives. These sessions are being facilitated by Ian Watson from The Social Deck who has experience in making sure everyone’s thoughts are heard and running an interactive session with different ways for people to provide input.
We are very grateful to everyone who has participated in these sessions and shared their thoughts on how things can be improved. The information collected is being pulled together by our team and will help to inform our future work. National Allergy Council working groups, ASCIA and A&AA will be working together to progress suggestions for improvements in different areas, with ongoing consultation.
Shared Care for Allergy meeting in Adelaide – May 2023
If you would like to attend a consultation session, we still have some sessions available.
In person meetings:
| Location | Time | Date (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Melbourne, Victoria | 9am – 3pm (AEST) | Wednesday 7 June |
| Perth, Western Australia | 9am – 3pm (AWST) | Wednesday 14 June |
Online meetings:
| Location | Time | Date (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Victoria | 9am – 12pm (AEST) | Monday 5 June |
| Australian Capital Territory | 9am – 12pm (AEST) | Friday 9 June |
| Regional Western Australia | 9am – 12pm (AWST) | Friday 16 June |
To register visit the Shared Care for Allergy Consultation Hub.
To be kept updated about the Shared Care for Allergy project, please subscribe to the Shared Care for Allergy Bulletin.
Nip allergies in the Bub project
The downloadable food ideas have been translated into 14 different languages. View these resources.
There are several new resources that will be available soon.
We are creating two new eczema animations with funding support from the Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation. The first animation will explain the different types of moisturisers and the second animation will explain how to use topical corticosteroids properly. Infographic versions of the animations will also be available to view and download on the website.
We are also developing a new eczema video showing parents how to apply moisturiser to their baby’s skin. This video will also show how to apply steroid creams and lotions.
Visit the Nip allergies in the Bub website.
Allergy 250K project
Our second Allergy 250K young adult camp will be held in Victoria from 7-9 July. This camp will allow us to engage with young adults who are interested in being peer mentors which is an important component of our school-aged teen camps. Over the weekend, we will be undertaking some fun adventure and team building activities, and also conducting peer mentor training.
We are also about to conduct a national online survey of 11-25-year-olds living with severe allergies. We last carried out this survey in 2017 and we are keen to find out about young peoples’ experiences with managing their severe allergies and how we can support them.
Schools and Children’s Education and Care project
We are currently reviewing the Best Practice Guidelines for the prevention and management of anaphylaxis in schools and children’s education and care. As part of this review, we will also:
- Update the Allergy Aware resource hub and include a new section for camp providers
- Create summary documents of the Best Practice Guidelines for parents
Digital Health (My Health Record) project
It is important for allergies to be accurately recorded in My Health Record. That’s why the National Allergy Council has been working with the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) to create fact sheets and guides for people with allergies and healthcare professionals about how to add allergy information.
Updates to resources for healthcare professionals
We have recently updated our fact sheets for healthcare professionals:
- My Health Record for clinical immunology/allergy specialists
- Getting started: My Health Record for private allergy practices
- Event summaries: A guide for clinical immunology/allergy specialists using conformant software
- Uploading specialist letters: A guide for clinical immunology/allergy specialists using Genie
Updates to resources for people with an allergy and their carers
We have recently updated our fact sheets for people with an allergy and their carers:
You can now access My Health Record information on your mobile via the new My Health app. Further information on how to access and use the app is available on the Australian Digital Health Agency website.
To view our fact sheets or for further information about My Health Record for healthcare professionals or people with an allergy and their carers, visit our website.
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 CEC bookmarks
Stay up to date with National Allergy Council projects
Learn more about our projects.
Stay informed about the National Allergy Council
To stay informed, follow us on social media via Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter.