Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is National Stroke Awareness Week. Stroke is one of those diseases that I think Australians, and for that matter people through the world, do not understand fully. They do not know the signs and do not know the correct treatment and the correct way to react at the time of having a stroke. Stroke is the second greatest killer after coronary disease and a leading cause of disability. In 2009 Australians will suffer around 60,000 new and recurrent strokes—that is one every 10 minutes. One in five people having a first-ever stroke will die within one month, and one in three will die within a year. The number of strokes will increase each year due to the ageing of the population unless something is done to reduce the incidence of stroke. With the increased incidence of stroke comes an increased cost to our community. It comes in the necessity to have more beds in aged-care facilities. It also comes in the form of a greater reliance on family and carers, a cost in terms of loss of production and the simple human cost associated with people suffering strokes.

The FAST test is an easy way to recognise and remember the signs of stroke. Using the FAST test involves asking three simple questions. Face: check the person’s face. Has the person’s mouth drooped? Arms: can they lift both their arms? Speech: is their speech slurred? Do they understand you? If the answer creates any concern, then it is time. Time is critical. If you see any of these signs, call 000 straight away.

In the next 10 years more than half a million people will suffer a stroke. Stroke kills more women than breast cancer. About 88 per cent of stroke survivors live at home, and most have a severe disability or some kind of disability. Close to 20 per cent of all strokes occur in people under 50 years of age. Stroke costs Australia approximately $2.14 billion per year. So it causes enormous disability and it increases the demand for aged care facilities and it puts an enormous burden on carers. Once a person suffers a stroke some of the things that they need to do is undertake lifestyle change: look at their diet, level of exercise, level of alcohol intake and smoking. These are all behaviours that impact on a person’s ability to recover from a stroke and to ensure that they do not have future strokes.

In the time that I have remaining I would like to share with the House details of a research project that has been conducted by the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s Stroke Research Group. The group has developed a system for fast-tracking stoke treatment which could benefit thousands of Australians who suffer from strokes and save millions of dollars. The system is called Pre-hospital Acute Stroke Triage, or PAST, Protocol. It reduces pre-hospital and emergency department delays to allow more stroke patients to receive brain-saving thrombolysis, or clot-bursting treatment, within a three-hour window of having a stroke.

A three-hour treatment period is a very important time period. By reversing the crippling effects of the stroke we can enable more people to return to their families, their homes and their jobs. This also reduces the demand on nursing home beds, in-hospital rehabilitation programs and healthcare dollars. This is a unique system. If the PAST protocol were implemented nationally an additional 2,500 people could receive the thrombolysis treatment. This is a unique process that has been developed in the Hunter and it is one that really benefits stroke patients throughout Australia. This is Stroke Awareness Week. Let us be aware of stroke. (Time expired)

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to commend the member for Shortland for her contribution and the motion before the House. I thank the member for raising this important issue, particularly in the context of National Stroke Awareness Week and the fact that 60,000 people in Australia will suffer a stroke this year.

There is not a person in this place who has not been directly affected by someone they know and love suffering a stroke. As we all know, it is not one person who is affected as a result. While the individual survivor concerned may be left with the most obvious physical or mental impairment, the reverberations are felt throughout their home and community. As the member for Shortland indicated in her motion, stroke is the second most prevalent cause of death and the leading cause of disability in Australia. It staggers me that one in seven people will suffer a stroke in their lifetime and that 20 per cent of strokes occur in people under the age of 50. That figure makes a mockery of the view, which many of us tend to have, that stroke is an ailment that only afflicts the aged. One in five stroke sufferers are aged under 50. If they survive they can face many years of rehabilitation and the need for a range of support services.

It is in that context that I want to raise the issue of the Stroke Association of Victoria and the remarkable work that the volunteers undertake on behalf of stroke survivors. I had the opportunity earlier this year to meet with Clare Gray from the Stroke Association when she visited East Gippsland along with many of her members. It is a remarkable organisation on many fronts. The association is made up completely of volunteers who provide support as caregivers to loved ones who have suffered a stroke. These people give their time to supporting stroke survivors and reinforcing the message of stroke awareness to the community at large. They provide a wide range of information and ongoing support long after the medical profession has dealt with the most obvious issues. There is a constant need for support and assistance to make sure the stroke survivor can enjoy the highest quality of life possible.

It disappoints me that the work of the Stroke Association of Victoria is not properly acknowledged with ongoing funding for professional support staff. With a relatively minor investment, the work of the association could expand through the use of a professional coordinator to develop and administer services to more than 20 support groups across Victoria. Australia is a nation that relies on its selfless volunteers—and long may that be the case—but we need to make sure that we do not take them for granted. Governments at the state and federal level should urgently consider how we fund such volunteer organisations that could leverage countless more hours of support activities and provide an even better service with just a small investment from the public purse.

We cannot talk about stroke without acknowledging the opportunities to minimise our personal risk. The member for Shortland touched on them. There are some factors which are beyond our control, but lifestyle factors such as diet, alcohol consumption, smoking and how active we are in our daily lives will all affect our own level of risk. As members of parliament we must avoid the temptation to become a nanny state and dictate to our communities, but we can do a lot more to promote healthy and active lifestyles for people of all ages through the provision of appropriate facilities and more support for junior sporting organisations.

I am a big believer in junior team sports and the role they play in connecting children with their communities and establishing healthy habits for life. I fear that many young people miss out on this opportunity for purely economic reasons. It is an area that I intend to keep pursuing with governments at all levels to increase access to sporting opportunities and the lifelong benefits it provides.

As a layman I like the description that the Victorian Stroke Association provides to explain a stroke on its website. They call it a ‘brain attack’ in that it happens when the blood supply to the brain in interrupted and the brain does not get the oxygen is needs. The importance of prompt action to assist someone you suspect of having experienced a stroke cannot be overstated. As the member for Shortland correctly pointed out, the symptoms may include weakness or numbness or part paralysis in parts of the body, difficulty swallowing or a loss of vision or dizziness. The association’s website provides a range of support material but the most important advice is to seek medical assistance immediately if you suspect someone is having a stroke. Fast action can save a life or minimise the level of permanent impairment.

The association’s website also makes another important point in relation to the recovery process. It says:

The brain is a remarkable organ and is capable of adapting to change. In the weeks and months following a stroke many partially-damaged cells may recover and start to work again.

                        …                   …                   …

The length of time it takes to recover varies widely from person to person.

                        …                   …                   …

As a rule, a majority of recovery often takes place during the first year to 18 months, but many people continue to improve over a much longer period.

This is why we always say, ‘NEVER GIVE UP’

There is a message here for us all in terms of the activities that we undertake to assist people in recovering from stroke and to support research and development into preventative actions: we must never give up. Dare I say, in the time that is left to me, that I think if more Australian were aware of the contributions made by their elected members during debates such as this, rather than being aware of some of the spectacles that they sometimes see in question time, their respect for those who choose to serve our communities through elected office would rise considerably. I congratulate the member for Shortland for bringing this important matter to the attention of the House.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also want to commend the member for Shortland for moving tonight her motion about strokes and helping to create added awareness in the federal parliament about this issue. I want to make a small contribution to help create that awareness across my electorate and right across Australia, because I think this is one of those important areas of health awareness that not enough people understand, and we ought to do everything we can to make sure that people know the symptoms, know the causes and know the impact and effects of a stroke. To illustrate the impact that a stroke has on people, I want to invite the members present in the chamber and the people that might be listening to imagine what it would be like if you awoke one morning to find one side of your body was permanently paralysed, or to find that you were perfectly able to understand words but were unable to speak or to write or to find that you were having to relearn how to perform the simplest activities of daily living, such as eating, dressing or bathing, things that come naturally to the rest of us. Your life and the lives of your family and friends would need to be completely rearranged. That is a very difficult time for people who have a stroke. It is a very difficult time for their friends and families as well. These are just some of the life-altering ways that a stroke can have an impact on people’s lives.

You have already heard tonight, from the member for Shortland and others, some pretty alarming statistics about stroke sufferers in Australia, so I want to talk mainly about the topic of prevention. To give a background setting, there are a range of signs of stroke which may include one or more of the following things. People may experience numbness, weakness or paralysis of the face, or of an arm or a leg on one or both sides of the body. They may find they are having difficulty in speaking or understanding what somebody is saying to them. They may find themselves dizzy, or experiencing a loss of balance or having an unexplained fall. They may have some loss of vision or suddenly blurred or decreased vision in one or both eyes. They may have a headache, an unusually severe one, or the abrupt onset of a headache. They may have some unexplained change in a headache pattern, with one that might persist, or have difficulty in swallowing. This is not an exhaustive list. These are just some of the things that may happen to people. Having lost a close friend of mine to a stroke only about five years ago, I have a sense of just how quickly it can happen to someone, someone who is not necessarily an older person. In fact, as we have heard, most strokes happen to people who are under 55 years of age. They can even happen to really young people in their 20s or younger. Strokes are very debilitating. They can also lead to death. People might not recover at all from their stroke, particularly within 48 hours of having it.

It would be a safe assumption to make that many Australians just do not realise the extent of a stroke or what it can do. That is why I think awareness campaigns such as the FAST campaign are essential. They really do help people to better understand what is happening either to themselves or to somebody close to them, being a friend or a family member. Not only is stroke Australia’s second biggest killer; the number of strokes will increase each year as Australia’s population ages unless we can reduce the incidence rate. FAST is a simple way of remembering the signs of stroke and what to do if you experience them or if you see the signs in another person. FAST stands for Facial weakness, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties and Time to act fast. Calling 000 immediately could prevent death or severe disability. This brings me to another aspect of stroke: not only can it be prevented but if you act quickly enough you can minimise the impact of a stroke on someone by getting them to hospital in time. I have been active in the FAST campaign. I have promoted widely the need for people to carry FAST wallet cards to assist them in recognising the symptoms. They are still available from my office and I know they are available from other members’ offices as well. I know everyone in this parliament is committed to trying to help reduce the incidence of stroke.

In the short time that I have I also want to make mention of the things that we can all do to try and help prevent a stroke. There are obviously easy things such as not smoking or giving up smoking, losing weight if you are overweight, limiting your alcohol intake—a moderate amount of alcohol can lower your risk of stroke, but more alcohol is harmful to your health—keeping your blood pressure low with a low-salt diet and undertaking physical activity. If required, medical attention is also necessary. You can also live by the motto, ‘The lower your cholesterol, the lower your risk of stroke.’ The two are intimately linked. You can control cholesterol with a combination of diet, exercise and, of course, medication. Being physically active is also very important, so we should try to do some moderate exercise every day. There is a lot that people can do. We all have to be aware of the symptoms and we have to try and help our friends and family, not only beforehand but also afterwards if something does happen.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I take up the points raised by the previous speaker in relation to opportunities to prevent the frequency of stroke occurring in our community—in particular the issues raised in relation to older people and those with certain medical problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes. There is no question that lifestyle factors such as diet, alcohol consumption, smoking and how active we are in our daily lives affect our individual risk. In particular I refer to the issue of smoking. As someone who had a father who was a regular smoker and tragically suffered from lung cancer later in his life due to his smoking habit, formed as a very young man, I am very committed to encouraging young people in our community to avoid taking up smoking in the first place. As a government there is a lot more that we could do via public health initiatives on the issue of smoking.

The Quit campaign, which has been very successful across Australia, is an initiative which needs further support in the future. There are a whole range of initiatives being considered in terms of restricting the amount of advertising and the display of cigarettes. Also, in many states legislation is being put forward to prevent smoking when children are in cars. These are all very good and positive initiatives. If we can avoid young people in particular taking up the habit of smoking early in life, the benefits will flow through in minimising the number of strokes in our community.

Healthy eating is also an issue that the previous member referred to. Again, it is an opportunity for us as elected members of parliament to lead by example. We should support our food producers across our nation and encourage young people in particular to enjoy five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. It does a lot for your health, in terms not only of minimising the incidence of stroke in our community but of overall quality of life.

In my previous contribution to this motion before the House I referred to the need to encourage healthy lifestyles, particularly amongst our young people. It is something I would like to expand on further if time permits. We have an opportunity in our nation to encourage young people in particular to be active members of their communities. There is a real prospect for us to do a lot more in reducing the economic barriers for a lot of our young people. I represent a regional constituency, and a lot of our young people have trouble accessing sporting opportunities. There is a real opportunity for us to make sure that we provide those opportunities in our regional communities, taking into consideration the extra transport costs involved for a lot of families. Again, early habits formed in terms of a healthy lifestyle will have immeasurable benefit in reducing the incidence of stroke in our community.

I also referred previously to the Stroke Association of Victoria and the excellent work they are doing in supporting people who have suffered from stroke and, of course, their families and caregivers. As members of parliament we need to reflect more on the contribution that is made to our community by carers. Carers save our nation a king’s ransom in forgone costs to the community if we had to provide that care from the public purse. With a little further investment from us at the state and federal levels to support our carers we would be able to achieve a lot more in supporting people with illnesses. In this particular case I am referring to strokes.

The support groups that exist in Victoria provide a wide range of support to families and to survivors, helping them through a very traumatic time in their lives. By their very nature, strokes are unexpected. They occur suddenly and it is like a lightning strike on the families involved. It hits them in an instant and, from then on, their lives are different. It is up to us as a government and as members of parliament to make sure that we provide support for the survivors and also to the caregivers.

There are opportunities for us to make sure that the caregivers and the work that they are doing in the community are more widely recognised and appreciated. It is with that in mind that I repeat my earlier remarks encouraging state and federal governments to see what support they can give to groups like the Stroke Association of Victoria in terms of professional facilitation work, because I find that a professional facilitator or coordinator can leverage off the amount of work the volunteers undertake on behalf of those who have suffered a stroke. Again, I thank the member for Shortland for the motion before the House and commend her for her work in this regard.

Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising to support this motion, I too wish to congratulate the member for Shortland for bringing this motion before the House today and for giving me the opportunity to speak on this very serious and very important issue. If there is one thing I have learnt in the 18 months I have been in this House it is that there are many very important and very serious issues that we feel passionate about. We in this House have the opportunity to raise many of those issues on behalf of our electorates and on behalf of groups that we may be involved in or work with. National Stroke Week is a great opportunity to speak on this issue because, by raising awareness of the issues of stroke, the causes of stroke and the very important medical research and medical support that goes into dealing with the results of stroke, we can perhaps make a difference.

There are many causes that we as individuals and members of parliament passionately believe in but, unfortunately, we cannot make a difference in all of them. But through public debate and awareness-raising we can contribute to the prevention of stroke and perhaps raise the number of medical opportunities available to deal with the symptoms of stroke. As I and speakers before me have said, stroke is preventable. It is an issue that fits, I think, quite closely with the government’s agenda when it comes to health reform and health policy around increasing our support for preventive health and primary care. It is at those two levels that we can make a real difference for stroke victims and, as importantly, potential stroke victims in this country.

There are three key ways in which we can prevent stroke from happening. One of them is through clinical ways in terms of medication and, where appropriate, surgery. With the wonders of modern medicine in this country, we can deal with some of the causes of stroke through medical technology and medical expertise and so prevent strokes from occurring. But, as other speakers have said, the critical way of preventing stroke in our community is through changes in lifestyle. We all know that improving our diets, exercising more and cutting down on the bad habits of smoking and excessive intake of alcohol can improve our health in so many ways. Indeed, it is very clear that there are direct correlations between preventing strokes and addressing those lifestyle issues. So if just a few people are paying attention during the short time that we have available for this debate this evening and get the message and start to improve their lifestyle and physical health, it will be a great improvement for our community.

Whilst we all know the major focus is on the benefits to individuals we must also acknowledge that stroke costs the taxpayer around $2.14 billion each year, so there is clearly an incentive from a financial perspective for us to encourage people to take up lifestyle changes that will help prevent them from becoming victims of stroke. As I said, this is important not just from the financial perspective, but also due to the fact that stroke is the second biggest killer in this country after coronary heart disease. As has been mentioned before, a statistic I was not aware of until I started to research this topic, is that stroke kills more women than breast cancer. We all know how effective the breast cancer campaign has been right across this country in many different aspects. This campaign has raised awareness and I believe it has meant that a lot more young women have taken the time to ensure that they put together a range of checks, balances and lifestyle changes to prevent them from becoming victims of that disease. In the time remaining can I echo the previous speaker’s comments about carers and volunteers in this area. (Time expired)

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to be able to give personal and bipartisan support to the work of the member for Shortland on this motion. I want to begin with a human tale, in fact two. I will not name the people involved for reasons of privacy, but the story of stroke in our community is about the impact of a tragic condition on real people.

One is the mum of a young girl called Grace. This mum was in her early forties when she was struck by a stroke. She was not a smoker. To the best of my knowledge she may have had one or two glasses of wine a week. She kept herself well, healthy and fit. There was a time when her family thought they would lose her. Fortunately, due to the combination of the love of her husband, the strength of a friend and the skill of those in the stroke unit who helped take care of her, she has been able to make a tremendous recovery. That is an exemplar of what we are looking at here. I want to deal briefly with the problem, the prevention and the cure.

There is another story as well and that is of a young woman known to our family who was in her late twenties at the time, an athlete, a non-drinker and a non-smoker. What occurred in her situation was that during the week in which she finished her PhD thesis, she was also the victim of a stroke attack. For a long while we thought that this young woman would also be lost. There is nothing explicable; that is chance, human tragedy. Again, because of the strength of the individual, the support of her husband and the care, skill and professionalism of those in stroke units, there has been a very solid recovery. In each case there has been loss of quality of life. I do not want to pretend that there have been miracle recoveries, but there have been solid improvements which mean that there is a future. But there is a loss of amenity and there is suffering as a consequence.

Let me explain the problem. The problem is that in this country 60,000 people will suffer a stroke each year. The causes have been well documented during this debate. There is some genetic predisposition for stroke, and for that there is screening and work can be done. But many strokes result from lifestyle issues, and it is these things which we can address—through National Stroke Week, through the work of the National Stroke Foundation, through the work of the different health bodies in relation to healthy lifestyle, control of our intake of alcohol, reduction and hopefully eradication of the use of tobacco products, and exercise on an appropriate scale. These things can help us make a real difference on the side of prevention. That is a profound and important task and that is why the National Stroke Foundation’s launch of its ‘Face, Arms, Speech, Time’ campaign is extremely important—it helps people to identify the risk factors and helps them to respond so that they take responsibility for their own lives and for those around them.

That leads to the question of, where we cannot prevent, what we can do to help to cure. The research of the National Stroke Foundation is very clear that care in a stroke unit compared with general medical care can lead to a 20 per cent reduction in death, in the early days, and in disability, in the longer periods. This is an extremely important contribution. We need to spread these stroke units from within major hospitals and bring them to regional hospitals to give people the opportunity for early and immediate intervention at the moment of greatest need. That is our task. I thank the member for Shortland because, in bringing this motion to the House, she gives us a chance to cooperate in a bipartisan way on an issue of genuine bipartisan and national need.

Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.