Helping vulnerable Queenslanders

 

Transcript: AMA Queensland Foundation Board Chair, Dr Dilip Dhupelia, and VacSeen Project CFO Lili Wackwitz, ABC Radio Brisbane, Mornings with Rebecca Levingston, Monday 13 June 2022

Subject: AMA Queensland Foundation and the VacSeen Project

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REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Hopefully, you've had your flu shot. So many people sick right now. As you've been hearing across the program this morning, the flu season seems to have arrived with a vengeance and the state government has made the flu shots free until the end of this month so a good time to go in and get that jab.

What about, though, if you are experiencing homelessness or you just don't have sort of a safe and steady place to live, perhaps getting a vaccine might feel a bit out of reach? There is a group of young medical students who are working to change that. Their project, VacSeen, aims to provide free preventative healthcare services for people experiencing homelessness and disadvantaged people across Queensland.

Lili Wackwitz is the VacSeen Project's chief financial officer. Lili, good morning.

LILI WACKWITZ: Good morning, Rebecca. How are you?

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Well, thank you. And Dr Dilip Dhupelia is chair of the Australian Medical Association Queensland Foundation. Dilip, good to see you again.

DR DILIP DHUPELIA: Good morning. Good to be back.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Lili, the VacSeen Project, what's the genesis? How did it all start?

LILI WACKWITZ: Yeah. I guess the VacSeen Project, like you mentioned, is a service that we provide. We give preventative healthcare services to vulnerable and homeless people across Queensland, and that is now expanding into other states across Australia, which is fantastic.

The idea essentially is to be able to give back and give those people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to receive those services in places such as homeless shelters, hostels and social housing - places where they're comfortable and that they can receive that medical treatment in places that aren't too brash essentially, some places that they might not feel comfortable going. They can essentially remove themselves from there and come to those places that I mentioned so that they can receive those services.

We began our journey about two years ago now. We started off as a few conversations between university friends, and we've really expanded our operations across the state now so it's been fantastic.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Wow. Such a great idea. Any idea of how many vaccinations you've done?

LILI WACKWITZ:  Yes. In the last month alone, across clinics all over Queensland, we've able to provide about 150 to 200 vaccines, flu and COVID, to those experiencing homelessness. But across the board, since we got started, it's almost 800. So we have ramped up operations significantly over the last period, particularly with the flu season coming on board, so it has grown very, very fast.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  And, Lili, where are you at in terms of your medical journey?

LILI WACKWITZ:  I'm actually not a medical student, Rebecca. I'm just finishing my commerce degree. So I'm on board with another law student, as well as five medical students, to kind of bring the operation together.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Okay, bringing the crew together. We need all those heads in the mix. Of course, this requires funding and, Dilip, presumably this is where the AMA Queensland Foundation comes in. Give us a little bit of background on that.

DR DILIP DHUPELIA: Rebecca, the AMA Queensland Foundation was set up by Queensland's doctors in the year 2000 so we've been going for about 22 years now. Our mission is to actually raise funds and to allow doctors to do good. That's our theme.

The Foundation is particularly interested in looking after rural and remote medical services, looking after vulnerable people, providing money for medical education to students who otherwise could not complete their medical degrees, and in vital research such as breast cancer. So we are working with a lot of people who are working with vulnerable people, and the VacSeen Project became one of our highlights this year, when we learned about this wonderful work, these medical students, the law student and Lili are doing. We were quite interested in that because we want to make sure that vulnerable groups do not fall in the cracks of our health services, and we just are delighted to be part of this mission because we want to take medicine into non-medical spaces, directly engaging with vulnerable people in our community.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  It makes so much sense, of course. The healthier the population is, the more the system can cope generally. So you guys have just donated $10,000 to the VacSeen Project?

DR DILIP DHUPELIA: Yes, that's something that we are really happy about. These are the kind of projects we like to support.

We've also lobbied the Queensland government to make sure that the vaccines for those experiencing homelessness are available free of charge, so that was a bit of AMA Queensland advocacy for that. But the money that we're giving them is required for the disposals, the PPE, the syringes, the yellow boxes to put the sharps in, those kind of things, and some travel as well.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON: Yeah. Dr Dilip Dhupelia, Chair of the AMA Queensland Foundation, who have just made a significant donation to the VacSeen Project. The CFO is Lili Wackwitz. What is the reaction of clients that you're working with when you make that connection and say, "Would you like a vaccine? Here's how we can do it sort of on your terms."

LILI WACKWITZ:  Our operations are in two parts. There's obviously providing the services, but there's also the educational piece. That educational piece is really important so that we can build those connections and get people to understand exactly what they're in for when they're getting their vaccine. Of course, it is a positive outcome for everyone that comes on board.

The conversations that we have with people in a lot of cases are brought about by the incentives that we provide for them to begin with. In a lot of cases, we offer $10 Coles vouchers so that people can understand that what they're receiving is worthwhile for them. It can be really difficult at times for people to understand that something that's preventative like a vaccine and actually seeing what the outcome will be. Because it's preventative and I guess not a cure, those outcomes, I guess, are not getting the flu or not getting COVID. And people sometimes find that it's difficult to understand that getting that preventative service is what's preventing that, rather than trying to come back after getting COVID or getting the flu, trying to... Do you know what I mean?

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yeah, prevention rather than treatment.

LILI WACKWITZ:  And it can be difficult to understand. So providing those incentives for people has been fantastic. And we often have conversations with people when they come in for the clinics. I was speaking to a couple of colleagues of mine this morning, and I was asking them about their experiences. And specifically when dealing with young people, we deal a lot with people who are experiencing homelessness at a young age, and we often have conversations with people who are going in and out of foster care, 16 different times, as an example. Getting those COVID vaccines and those flu vaccines can be really difficult for them, so it has been a really positive response from those people who are experiencing homelessness. But also those people who are supporting those people, it's been a great experience to connect with them as well.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yeah. Lili, have you been with the VacSeen Project over the course of the whole two years?

LILI WACKWITZ:  Yeah, absolutely.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  And how does this compare to going into winter last year? Is there a ramped-up need, or is it similar?

LILI WACKWITZ:  It's interesting, because everyone was talking about COVID last year. There wasn't a whole lot of information and support around the flu. Our services last year were really focused on being able to provide both of the vaccines, COVID and flu, to people experiencing homelessness. But we were providing the flu vaccines ourselves, we were having to source them. And fantastic initiative this year with the Queensland government, as Dilip mentioned, that they're providing free vaccines to everyone. So now our focus is shifting to putting people in positions that they feel comfortable in, so making sure that our operations are running out of homeless shelters, out of hostels, and out of social housing.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yeah. Dilip, what do you think? Not everything in life can be free, but should flu vaccines be free, year-round?

DR DILIP DHUPELIA:  I think the initiative that the Queensland government has done, working with AMA Queensland to actually make it free this year, is very important. I remember coming on your show when I was State President of AMA Queensland, when we had about 6,000 cases, and people in intensive care just with flu. And since then, in between in the last two years, we've actually had the pandemic and we've seen how many thousands of lives have been lost. And even today we seem to have become a little bit complacent, where every day we're still getting thousands and thousands of COVID cases across Australia, and too many deaths basically.

So it's really become normal. COVID is doing what flu used to do. And now that we've come out of COVID, it's going to be scary in the sense that we are vulnerable to flu, because we've been protected by social distancing, masks etc, and now we are opening up the whole country. And flu will be back. Flu is always there. And I think that's the reason the government has seen the light by saying, okay, it's cheaper to give the vaccination to the people free, because we know it works, rather than those very expensive ICU beds being occupied by people having flu or COVID.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yeah. And I think certainly at one point last week there were more people in intensive care with flu than with COVID. And yet, as you say, I mean, the COVID numbers seem to have dropped off the news agenda. There's a level of fatigue there.

DR DILIP DHUPELIA:  And we’re coming into the flu season. Before COVID, we traditionally had the flu starting around July, August. So it's still not too late to immunise because it's very important that you get over the peak season, which will normally come around that July to October season.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yes. And it's still free until the end of the month of June.

DR DILIP DHUPELIA:  It is.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  So, yeah, I reckon Dr Dhupelia, along with anyone else who knows anything about sickness and health, would love for you to get your flu vaccine. Lili, does the VacSeen Project have plans to set up a sort of a permanent vaccine clinic? Or what's the kind of the longer term or bigger picture goal?

LILI WACKWITZ:  So the bigger picture goal is not necessarily having a clinic because the idea is that we provide those services where people are comfortable, so in their own settings. But I guess our major goal over the next couple of years is to expand beyond Queensland. And right now we are focusing on building those services in Perth and we are looking at opportunities in Sydney as well. So we are expanding, we are taking our time to really understand what the need is in those areas and expand from there.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Oh, that's fantastic. This is a Queensland concept, this is a Brisbane initiative?

LILI WACKWITZ:  Yeah, absolutely. We are actually following the precedent set by the South Australian local government there. They provided free vaccines to homeless people in their local area about three years ago now, so this concept has come from them. That being said, the support clinics that we provide is certainly not uncommon, but it is something that we are expanding very fast.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yeah. Which just makes you think so highly of both commerce students, medical students, there was a doctor who was in the Australia Day Honours as well, I think, who was running a clinic - I think it was in New South Wales, a Sydney-based doctor going to people in vulnerable circumstances, taking medical care. Speaking of honours, Dr Steve Hambleton was also acknowledged in the Queen's Birthday Honours today, Dilip.

DR DILIP DHUPELIA:  We were very happy to see Steve get his very deserved award and recognition. He actually was the foundation President of AMA Queensland Foundation for the past 13 years before he handed over the reins to me. So his work is recognised, and it's only a small part of what he actually does. He's previously been a federal AMA President for three years and also the State President in Queensland. So it's great to see that his work has been recognised.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Yeah. Well done to him. What about for AMA Queensland Foundation? You've already got another project in your sights?

DR DILIP DHUPELIA:  Yes, absolutely. Besides the VacSeen Project, for our last appeal we actually bought the audio-visual equipment for Juiced TV for the Children's Hospital, and that was a delightful project for us to work in.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  Oh wow.

DR DILIP DHUPELIA:  It brought so many smiles to those young kids who are in hospital on long stay. But our end-of-financial-year appeal now is for Youngcare. And Youngcare is where they actually develop specialist disability accommodation, especially those who fall through the NDIS gap. So we are making a big appeal to our doctors, to our supporters and to the public that we need to give at least $25,000 by the end of this month to Youngcare, which will go a long way towards their programs that they're doing and their advocacy. So we're going to do it, and we look forward to the support of the people.

REBECCA LEVINGSTON:  What a wonderful combination of intention and outcome. So lovely to have you both here this morning. Thank you so much. And we'll keep in touch as the projects continue, Dilip and Lili. If you want to find out more about the AMA Queensland Foundation, just do a quick search and their website will pop up, amaqfoundation.com.au. You can look for more detail on the VacSeen Project. Lily Wackwitz and Dr Dilip Dhupelia, thank you both so much.