Latest Posts

Working together to optimise children’s mental health: The Campus Mental Health Strategy

Mental Health is an issue of growing concern across the community. This has been amplified through the COVID-19 pandemic. Child mental health is also an ongoing priority for the Melbourne Children’s Campus (MCC) and its three partners. The RCH treats many vulnerable patient groups (e.g., children with chronic illness, neurodevelopmental disorders, psychosocial challenges) with elevated risk of psychological and mental health difficulties. This extends across our inpatient and outpatient services and into the community. Despite this, mental health services can be fragmented and difficult to access. 

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Paediatric upper limb transplantation: A new frontier of surgery, immunology, and ethics

Hand transplantation is a technique to reconstruct absent and functionless upper limbs using cadaveric donor limbs.

In the 20 years since the world’s first hand transplant, the technique has developed into a reliable and valuable option for carefully selected adult amputees. The downside is the need for immunosuppression with its inherent risks (metabolic, infective, neoplastic, and renal impairment) for the duration of the transplant.

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Wadja Family Place in Focus, and what can RCH staff do to support Aboriginal patients and their families

The NAIDOC Week Grand Round will highlight how Wadja Aboriginal Family Place has provided excellence and leadership in health services to Aboriginal Children and their families at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Wadja works collaboratively in partnership in the areas of child health assessments, advocacy, liaison, research, mental health, education, and family support to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal children and young people.  

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Improving services, prevention and outcomes for tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a major cause of child morbidity and mortality globally. Young children are at particular risk of severe and disseminated disease following exposure to a person with tuberculosis. Public health and clinical services, including in Victoria, focus on early detection and treatment of both disease and infection. There have been recent developments that potentially strengthen and decentralise services for tuberculosis.

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Behavioural Approaches to Pain Management

Pain is described as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage”.  This definition from IASP guides clinicians to potential prevention and intervention points for a reduction in the experience of pain for our patients. 

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No Filter: Technology-facilitated sexual assault and implications for paediatric practice

Use of the internet and social media is now almost ubiquitous amongst adolescents. Parents express concern about their children’s use of social media and the risk of exposure to both unwanted and sought-after content, especially sexual content. Negotiating the digital world and understanding who their children are communicating with is becoming more difficult for parents.

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The Power of Expectation — 2021 Reddihough Symposium

Sophie Deane is a 20-year-old young woman with some pretty big ideas about what she would like to do with her life. She has just finished school and is keen to get on and find a job, move out of home, travel – and maybe even get married. She would like the chance to tell you more about those hopes and dreams. 

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Focusing on Families

 “Let our families and others who are important to us, be with us to care for us and love us” (Charter on The Rights of Children and Young People in Healthcare Service in Australia, 2017).
Patient and family-centred care has been widely accepted as an ideal way to care for children in hospitals. This was not always the case. Drawing on the RCH Archives collection, interviews with current and past patients, families and nursing staff, we will explore how family-centred care has evolved over time, to the present era where the child and family are at the forefront of our care.

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