Year-in-Review-2021-22 - Flipbook - Page 147
RPA psychiatrist spearheads support network
for newly arrived refugees
Dr Tanya Dus isn’t getting much sleep.
A psychiatrist by day at RPA hospital, she spends
her nights communicating with family in Ukraine,
and scrolling through local news sites filled with
reports of torture and rape.
“Sometimes, I have to stop reading because it
makes me viscerally upset,” Dr Dus said.
She was born in Australia, but has close family
in Kyiv. Recently, she lost contact with them
for weeks as they hid in a friend’s cellar. After
returning home, their neighbouring village was hit
by a missile.
In a bid to help, Dr Dus has teamed up with clinical
colleagues to provide an informal support network
for newly arrived refugees.
Medicare, but it is taking time, so her network
includes general practitioners, psychologists,
dentists and others who are donating their
services.
At RPA, she has worked with Director of Psychiatry
Dr Viktoria Sundakov to ensure Ukrainian and
Russian patients are admitted under native
speakers to make it easier for them talk about
their experiences.
And, she has been providing staff with cultural
training.
“Ukrainians are stoic people. They are unlikely
to ask for help, and would not usually admit to
having depression or anxiety. They are also deeply
suspicious of government, due to past oppressive
regimes,” she said.
Many refugees are now being moved to
humanitarian visas, giving them access to
Pitch winner to enhance support for CALD families
RPA’s Newborn Care team is set to create inlanguage educational videos to better support
culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families
to care for their babies, after winning the latest
round of The Pitch – Sydney Local Health District’s
staff innovation challenge.
“We’ll be able to give families the skills they
need so they have a better understanding of their
infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
and when they take their babies home,” Bonnie
Fonti, a Clinical Nurse Specialist at RPA Newborn
Care, said.
The team won $30,000 to develop the videos –
about interacting, playing and settling a baby;
feeding, growth and development milestones;
jaundice and phototherapy; and self-care for
parents – in five languages, Arabic, Bengali,
Chinese, Nepali and Vietnamese.
Every year, about 1000 babies are admitted to RPA
Newborn Care, the hospital’s specialist neonatal
unit equipped to care for babies born prematurely,
or full-term babies requiring intensive care, about
450 of these families are from Culturally and
Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.
Year in Review 2021–22
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