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Objective: This study assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency departments (EDs) in South Australia, measured by changes in the number and casemix of patients in the system over time. Methods: Data from the South Australia Emergency Department Dashboard, updated every 30 min, were analysed for the period 4 October–21 December 2020. The Dashboard reports live counts of the number and type of patients in each of the six adult metropolitan public EDs in Adelaide, South Australia. Results: There was a significant difference in the mean daily average occupied ED capacity before and during two distinct increases in COVID-19 cases in South Australia. An increase in COVID-19 cases coincided with a decrease in patients in EDs (Pearson's r = –0.93 and –0.67; P < 0.001 for both). Presentations in Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) Categories 2–5 decreased during these periods, whereas ATS Category 1 stayed constant. Mental health patients continued to present to the ED, despite the overall drop in ED presentations. Conclusions: During the two periods of COVID-19 case growth in South Australia, there was a significant drop in the number of patients presenting to the major public EDs and a change in the casemix of patients over time. What is known about the topic?: EDs in Australia often operate at or over capacity, with frequent reports of ambulance ramping, access block and long waiting times. There have been reports internationally of significant declines in ED presentations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. What does this paper add?: This paper uses a novel publicly available data source that is available in real time to contribute a new perspective from South Australia, which has experienced two distinct periods of strict restrictions and lockdown. The research showed that the number of mental health presentations remained consistently high, despite a significant overall decline in ED occupancy. What are the implications for practitioners?: This study demonstrates that South Australians are accessing emergency medical treatment differently in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of an overall decline in presentation numbers, the number of mental health-related presentations has not changed significantly, suggesting that this trend should be closely monitored. The findings corroborate the national concern that unwell people have avoided accessing emergency medical care during the pandemic, leading to worse outcomes and increased need for healthcare resources at a later date. It will be important to monitor and quickly detect further changes in ED usage using real-time data as the pandemic evolves, as well as in any future significant health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An online survey conducted in two Australian states (South Australia and Victoria) to study the impact of the pandemic on multi-dimensional wellbeing of individuals found that a higher proportion of women maintained overall wellbeing. Although women reported lower levels of wellbeing in psychological health and similar rates of physical health and living standards compared to men, they achieved higher levels of wellbeing in the ecology and community domains. This paper argues that women's utilisation of blue/green space and social connection played a key role in maintaining wellbeing. Comparing the findings for South Australia and Victoria suggest that women's overall hopefulness and resilience in the pandemic decreased with the severity and length of mobility restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed to assess the nurses' knowledge, concerns, perceived impact and preparedness toward the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background: As COVID‐19 is a new disease, its spread and emergence cause fear, anxiety and confusion among the general population. Nurses are in close contact with infected persons, and their knowledge plays an important role in preventing the transmission chain. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, 207 nurses were selected using convenience sampling from 29 March to 19 April 2020. The study used a questionnaire assessing the nurses' baseline characteristics, their source of information, knowledge, concerns, the perceived impact and their preparedness for the COVID‐19 pandemic. Results: Around half of the surveyed nurses (51.2%) reported that the Ministry of Health's and World Health Organization's websites and official pages were their main sources of information. The majority of nurses (81.6%) knew the nature of the virus, 83.6% agreed that their job puts them at risk of infection with COVID‐19 and 72% felt personally prepared for the pandemic. Conclusion: The majority of nurses had an acceptable level of knowledge regarding COVID‐19. However, psychological interventions are needed to be addressed in the planning stage before any pandemic. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? It is well established that COVID‐19 is a highly infectious disease with a fatality rate of about 6.48% in Egypt.Studies about nursing and COVID‐19 are relatively few.There is a lack of data regarding the nurses' knowledge, concerns, perceived impact and preparedness toward COVID‐19. What does this paper add? Nurses prefer gaining their knowledge regarding COVID‐19 from the Ministry of Health's and the World Health Organization's websites and official pages rather than the social media websites.Nurses have an acceptable level of knowledge regarding COVID‐19. The majority of surveyed nurses knew the nature of the virus along with its signs and symptoms.The majority of surveyed nurses feel that their job puts them at the risk of infection with COVID‐19, and they are quite afraid of being infected. The implications of this paper: Psychological interventions are needed in the planning stage before any pandemic to enhance the protection of nurses and health care workers and to reduce the psychological impact.Sustainable awareness programmes are required for health care workers, keeping them up to date with the most recent information regarding prevention and management methods from the World Health Organization's guidelines and other instructional materials.Hospitals can hold meetings and organize regular psychological support groups to allow nurses to manage their fears and acquire stress reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study investigated the experience of patients with chronic diseases regarding access to and utilisation of multidisciplinary care during COVID-19 in South Australia. Methods: Telephone interviews were conducted with 30 patients with chronic conditions attending nine general practices in metropolitan Adelaide. Supplementary data were obtained from the Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) to compare health services activity data provided by different health professionals before and after COVID-19 (from January 2019 to June 2020). Results: There was variation in access to different health services by patients with chronic conditions during COVID-19. The introduction of telehealth facilitated continuity of general practitioner (GP) services, with a high level of satisfaction among patients. Changes in medicines regulation, including the home delivery of medications, enabled timely access to medications for patients. The use of telehealth was less common for specialist and particularly allied health services. Dental check-ups that are important for the management of some chronic conditions were disrupted the most during COVID-19. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the policy measures introduced in Australia provided an opportunity to maintain multidisciplinary care for patients with chronic diseases during COVID-19. GPs, as core members of the primary healthcare team, as well as pharmacy and pathology services, were highly accessible. Telehealth was less accessed for chronic care services provided by specialists and allied health professionals. What is known about the topic?: Access to multidisciplinary care is critical to ensure continuity and quality of care for patients with chronic health conditions. Evidence suggests disruptions in health services can occur during pandemics. To continue access to routine care, the Australian Government introduced several policy initiatives during COVID-19 to enhance access to multidisciplinary care. What does this paper add?: Telehealth policy was particularly effective in facilitating patients' access to general practice services during COVID-19 particularly those services that did not need physical examinations. This policy complemented changes in medicines regulations that enabled timely and convenient access to medications for patients with chronic conditions. Allied health services, as important elements of multidisciplinary care, were more likely to be disrupted during COVID-19. What are the implications for practitioners?: Continuation of telehealth services is likely to enhance access to general practice services. The acceptability and use of telehealth for allied health services may require more flexibility, and training for both practitioners and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 continues to represent the single biggest challenge to contemporary community sport globally. Compliance with social distancing policies, strict return-to-play protocols, and COVID-19 specific training has, perhaps, forever changed the way that children and young people engage in organised sport. Within this context, and while many children and families seek to re-engage with community sport, we (researchers and sport practitioners) have an obligation to ask questions about how the pandemic has impacted youth sport, understand the short- and long-term consequences, and explore what (if any) opportunities can be seized to assist and improve future participation and retention. The aim of this paper was to present an in-depth exploration of the impact of COVID-19 on youth sport in South Australia.Methods: Within an interpretive descriptive methodology, this qualitative investigation draws on rich, individual interview and focus group data with 39 youth (ages 15-18), parents, coaches, and sport administrators. A reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken, leading to the development of four substantive themes.Results: We conceptualised the '4 Rs' to advance theoretical understandings about the pandemic's impact on youth sport, including the themes 'recognising struggle', 'reconnection', 're-engaging after restrictions, and 'reimagining sport'. The themes captured insights about a decline in mental wellbeing and physical activity, an increase in family connectedness, the challenge for sports to attract volunteers and participants back into sport, and the opportunities to reset values and philosophies underpinning the provision of youth sport.Conclusion: The findings provide valuable insight into the youth sport setting as a result of the global pandemic and suggest that families, sporting clubs and sporting organisations require additional resources and tools (for example, support for parents to facilitate their children's training at home during lockdown) to aid recovery efforts and to ensure the survival and prosperity of youth sport into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant risks to the vulnerable patient population supported by community mental health (CMH) teams in South Australia. This paper describes a plan developed to understand and mitigate these risks.Methods: Public health and psychiatric literature was reviewed and clinicians in CMH teams and infectious disease were consulted. Key risks posed by COVID-19 to CMH patients were identified and mitigation plans were prepared.Results: A public health response plan for CMH teams was developed to support vulnerable individuals and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan will be reviewed regularly to respond to changes in public health recommendations, research findings and feedback from patients and clinicians.Conclusions: The strategic response plan developed to address risks to vulnerable patients from COVID-19 can assist other CMH services in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A global catastrophe–the COVID-19 pandemic–appears to have two-dimensional health consequences for older adults: high risk of being infected and psychological distress. There is limited evidence on how the pandemic has impacted the life and coping of older adults who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), women in particular. This study explored the COVID-19 risk perception and coping strategies of older CALD women in South Australia. Methods: A mixed-methods research design was employed, involving a 31-items coping and emergency preparation scale for survey and semi-structured interviews with participants. The older CALD women were approached through 11 multicultural NGOs. One hundred and nine women participants from 28 CALD communities completed the online surveys; 25 of them agreed to a telephone interview and provided their contact details. 15 older CALD women ultimately participated in interviews. Results: Mean sum-score of dread risk, unknown risk, and fear (M: 43.5; SD: 4.9) indicated that the participants were somewhat anxious and worried. Mean sum-score of coping (M: 79.8; SD: 9.3) reported their compliance with expert advice and disinfection practices but accessing health information (M: 2.8; SD 1.4) and tendency to minimize anxiety (M: 2.1; SD: 1.2) were below neutral. Significant variations were found in coping in terms of age, meaning that the women aged 75 years and older were less likely to cope with the pandemic (P = 0.01). Emergency preparation differed based on the participants' residence and occupation status. The deductive-inductive thematic analysis of interview data was framed around three priori themes: risks of being affected, emotional and behavioral coping, and emergency preparation and access to services. Conclusions: Evidence shows a fear among the older CALD women with an endeavor to cope and prepare for emergency situations. This suggests the requirements for interventions that improve coping and reduce the risk of stress among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Residential aged-care facilities in Australia emerged as the high-risk setting the COVID-19 outbreaks due to community transmission. The vulnerable aged-care residents of these facilities suffered due to low hospital transfers and high mortality and morbidity rates. This study aimed to monitor and report the burden of COVID-19 in residential aged-care facilities across Australia and the impact of hospital transfer policies on resident hospitalisation during the first year of the pandemic. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study by collecting data from weekly aged-care outbreak reports published by open sources and official government sources between 1st March and 20th November 2020. A comprehensive line list of outbreaks was created using open-source data. The line list included the name of the facility, location, COVID-19 cases among residents, & staff, resident hospitalisations, mode of transmission, number of resident deaths, and state policies involving resident hospitalisation. We also searched the websites of these facilities to collect data on their COVID-19 policies for the residents, staff, and visitors. Statistical analyses were performed on the data obtained. Results: 126 aged-care COVID-19 outbreaks were identified in Australia during the study period. The incidence rate of COVID-19 infections among aged-care residents in Australia was (1118.5 per 100,000 resident population) which is 10 times higher than the general population (107.6 per 100,000 population). The hospitalisation rate for aged-care residents in Australia was 0.93 per 100,000 population. The hospitalisation rate of aged-care residents in Victoria was 3.14 per 100,000 population despite having the highest COVID-19 cases. Excluding South Australia, all states followed ad-hoc case-by-case hospital transfer policies for aged-care residents. Conclusion: This study documented a higher risk of COVID-19 infection for aged-care residents and workers but found low hospitalisation rates among residents across Australia. The hospitalisation rates in Victoria were higher than the national average but low when considering the COVID-19 infection rates in the state. The hospitalisation rates could have been impacted due to the state hospital transfer policies at that time. Immediate transfer of infected residents to hospitals may improve their survival and reduce the risk of infection to the other residents, as healthcare settings have more advanced infection control measures and are well-equipped with trained staff and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the March state election, a Labor government was installed after convincingly ousting Steven Marshall's one-term Liberal government, continuing a tradition of short-lived Liberal governments in South Australia. The Malinauskas Government: Leadership and Performance By the end of 2022, and less than a full year in office, Peter Malinauskas had already made a strong, mostly favourable, impression in South Australia. Premier Malinauskas was quick to claim this as a triumph for his fledgling government, noting the difficulties governments usually face in by-elections ( I ABC News i , 4 July 2022). Chapman leaves a reformist legacy, having been the state's first female Deputy Premier and Attorney-General, and having steered through contentious social reforms in the areas of abortion and voluntary euthanasia - which had been left untouched by more socially conservative Labor predecessors in John Rau and Michael Atkinson ( I ABC News i , 19 April 2022). [Extracted from the article]

This study explored the experiences of people with acquired brain injury and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on how they maintained their communities and sense of belonging, the strategies they found helpful, and advice they have for improving service provision and community connectedness. Semi structured interviews with pictorial mapping were conducted with ten adults with ABI and six of their family members. Participants responded to recruitment information circulated by a state-wide ABI peer support network in South Australia. Four primary themes were identified from the findings: (1) disruptions to routine; (2) social isolation; (3) using technology; and (4) strategies for staying safe and keeping well. Results are discussed using a social and urban geography lens and a conceptual framework of belonging to explore the experiences of people with ABI and their communities. The study reinforces the role of robust peer/support networks to stay connected, stay well and support others. Government, health services and community groups must provide clear and accessible information and supports, and regularly reach out to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people with ABI and their families during the pandemic. People with acquired brain injury and their families experienced increased challenges to maintaining contact with their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main challenges were disruptions to routine, social isolation, and use of technology for health, therapy and social contact. Strategies to support people with ABI to maintain connections, stay engaged, and access technology and information to stay safe and well during lock-down are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened individual and population wellbeing and strategies to jointly address these challenges within budget constraints are required. The aim of our research is to analyse evidence from the Active Lives South Australia study to consider the potential of physical activity (PA) health promotion strategies to be health-system cost saving while addressing wellbeing challenges. Methods: The Active Lives South Australia study compares adult populations who meet and do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines (150+ minutes of weekly physical activity) with respect to their subjective wellbeing and health care utilisation. Subject and results: Adults who met PA guidelines had better wellbeing across all aspects with and without adjustment for age, sex and income covariates. Analysis showed significant associations between meeting guidelines and lower probabilities of visiting and utilisation of GPs, specialist doctors, other health professionals, hospital inpatient admissions, outpatient clinic and emergency department visits, and an overall A$1760 lower cost per person annually. Controlling for age, sex and income, health expenditure for adults who met PA guidelines was significantly lower by A$1393 per person annually. That translated to A$804 million potential annual SA health system cost saving by shifting all adults to meeting PA guidelines. Conclusion: There is significant potential for effective health promotion strategies to be net cost saving while addressing wellbeing challenges of COVID-19 recovery where they can shift target populations from not meeting to meeting PA guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research efforts in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic focused on the actual and potential impacts on societies, economies, sectors, and governments. Less attention was paid to the experiences of individuals and less still to the impact of COVID-19 on an individual's wellbeing. This research addresses this gap by utilising a holistic wellbeing framework to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the overall wellbeing of individuals in the Australian state of South Australia through an online survey. The research framework for the survey comprises six dimensions: psychological and emotional health, physical health, living standards, family and community vitality, governance, and ecological diversity and resilience. The results show that most respondents (71%) were able to maintain overall wellbeing during the pandemic. However, more than a half of the respondents could not maintain wellbeing in psychological and emotional health. Further examination of the drivers of inability to maintain overall wellbeing reveals that low-income individuals, younger respondents (aged 18–24) and women suffer disproportionate hardships. Defining poverty in terms of multi-dimensional deprivations in wellbeing enables a nuanced analysis of the unequal impacts of COVID-19 mitigation policies that can be used to improve policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inevitably, Australian politics remains dominated by the response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and this also remains the case in the state of South Australia (SA). To temper this criticism, the government was quick to point out that the new tax was only likely to generate about $1 million in annual income in the first year, and crucially, they had invested $18 million in introducing new electric charging stations throughout the state, and had committed to converting the government's fleet of cars to be fully electric by 2035 ( I ABC News Online i , 11 November 2020). The COVID-19 outbreak has impacted on Steven Marshall's Liberal government, and it has been one of a number of challenges facing this government nearing the end of its first term. In the period under review, a series of other significant events impacted upon Marshall's government, including a major cabinet reshuffle, along with a delayed state budget held in November. [Extracted from the article]

As spaces of social, cultural and economic production, small regional music venues are an underexplored research area that can offer insights into changing music and performance practices, place-making, and the connections between urban and regional communities. Within the context of the COVID-19 crisis, the state of precarity in which such venues operate is emphasized and exacerbated. This article will present preliminary findings from our case study of a small, regional music venue in the mid-north of South Australia that has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated government restrictions. The pandemic has dramatically changed the way that live music is both performed and experienced, and a case study such as this offers an opportunity to discuss its impact on niche cultural and community spaces that are geographically and socially removed from the urban milieu and its policy settings. Preliminary findings suggest COVID-19 brought about both challenges (capacity restrictions and disruption of interstate travel for audiences and artists) as well as opportunities (strengthening the presence of rural voices in policy settings). The case study also highlights the need for further research on strategies for developing and sustaining regional touring pathways throughout South Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyse the smaller Australian state/territory service impact of the introduction of new COVID-19 psychiatrist video and telephone telehealth Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items. Method: MBS item service data were extracted for COVID-19 psychiatrist video and telephone telehealth item numbers corresponding to the pre-existing in-person consultations for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Northern Territory (NT), South Australia (SA) and Tasmania. Results: The overall rate of consultations (face-to-face and telehealth) increased during March and April 2020, compared to the monthly face-to-face consultation average, excepting Tasmania. Compared to an annual monthly average of in-person consultations for July 2018–June 2019, total telepsychiatry consultations were higher for April than May. For total video and telephone telehealth consultations combined, video consultations were lower in April and higher in May. As a percentage of combined telehealth and in-person consultations, telehealth was greater for April and lower for May compared to the monthly face-to-face consultation average. Conclusions: In the smaller states/territories, the private practice workforce rapidly adopted COVID-19 MBS telehealth items, with the majority of psychiatric consultation shifting to telehealth initially, and then returning to face-to-face. With a second wave of COVID-19 in Australia, telehealth is likely to remain a vital part of the national mental health strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]