Chief Executive Officer Janine Holland said the Community Advisory Committee was planning to hold four forums a year and the community is respectfully invited to assist with shaping the topics.

“We recently held the first of our forums, which focused on issues relating to pain, and there were 29 people in attendance, which was a really pleasing response,” she said.

“Guests were given some practical tips to deal with pain, including changing their way of thinking about pain, how to pace yourself, how exercise can sometimes help and finding reasons to be happy” she said.

“People heard from keynote speaker Dr Eliza Beazley, who is a consultant anaesthetist and Provisional Pain Fellow at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne and Northeast Heath Wangaratta.

“Dr Beazley’s ambition is to enhance the delivery of a much need specialist medical service to rural Australia and assist with building Chronic Pain capability in regional North East Victoria.

“She strongly believes in a patient centred and holistic approach to medicine, and empowering patients to improve their own health outcomes through education and positive relationships.”

After Dr Beazley’s presentation there was a "speed dating" session where everyone was able to talk to and ask questions of local healthcare clinicians, including pharmacist Marcia Watson, exercise scientist Felicity Munroe, chiropractor Toby Fraser, massage therapist Michael Smith, occupational therapist Laura Ford and physiotherapist Geoff Draper, all of whom who willingly gave of their time and expertise to support this community initiative.  

If you have an idea about an interesting topic for the community forum, please email executive@benallahealth.org.au and your suggestion will be passed on to the  Community Advisory Committee for their consideration.