Are you or your loved one struggling with a chronic illness or need a bit of assistance?
All of our staff are trained as part of our extensive training program on how to help manage these because 1 in 5 Australians are affected by multiple chronic illnesses and about half of our population have a chronic disease. These include arthritis, asthma, back problems, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and mental health conditions.
‘When two or more diseases occur at the same time, it is referred to as ‘comorbidity’, said Australian Institute of Health and Welfare spokesperson Louise York. ‘Sometimes these diseases occur together simply by chance, but often it’s because there are some associations between them, such as shared risk factors.’
Ageing is a factor that has a particularly strong association with comorbidity.
Here are some more statistics to help understand how common chronic illnesses are and how they affect our community:
– Over 1 in 5 Australians age 18+ (22% of Australians) reported having Cardiovascular disease.
– 1 in 10 Australians aged 18+ (10%) had biomedical signs of Chronic Kidney Disease in 2011–12, with the majority of these showing early signs of the disease.
– 1 in 19 Australians (5.4%) had diabetes in 2011–12.
– In 2013–14, 1 in 7 children aged 4–17 (14%) were assessed as having mental health disorders in the previous 12 months.
– Over 1 in 4 Australians (28%) reported having arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions in 2011–12. The most prevalent conditions were back problems, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
– 3 in 10 Australians aged 25–44 had untreated tooth decay in 2004–06.
– 1 in 10 Australians (10%) reported having asthma in 2011–12. This rate is significantly lower than the rate of 11.6% in 2001.
Chronic diseases can range from mild to more significant conditions and as the above statistics show, these are quite common in our communities.
For these reasons, Jubilee Community Care train all of our staff to be able to recognise the signs, be informed about and help with chronic illness management. If we can help improve your daily life – we will!
Speak to our office or to your support worker if you would like more help or information.
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