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Ashleigh was referred to Grand Pacific Health’s (GPH) Integrated Team Care (ITC) program in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), through her GP as an Aboriginal woman living with chronic illness. Ashleigh was struggling to afford specialist visits and as a result wasn’t managing too well. She suffers from sleep apnoea and was using a 10-year-old mask with her Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine – held together with sticky tape, which also had tubes that contained mould. Ashleigh’s other conditions included an injured foot, reflex sympathetic nervous dystrophy, chronic pain, asthma, major depression and anxiety. Managing her pain was a daily struggle and her medication was costing her a lot of money but despite taking dozens of pills, they weren’t really working for her. She was also on a long waiting list to have an MRI for her right foot.
“I couldn’t afford to keep living that way,” said Ashleigh.
Her Support Worker Taylor – a Registered Nurse with GPH, helped get Ashleigh a referral to a private pain specialist and GPH assisted with funding this. Changes were made to her daily medications and she was also able to legally access marijuana oil to manage her pain and anxiety. GPH’s ITC Program also paid for a new mask and tubes for her CPAP machine, which means she is able to use the equipment and sleep through the night. An MRI revealed how far her dystrophy condition had
degenerated in her right foot meaning specialists can now target that effectively, and she was also assisted to obtain a Mental Health Care Plan to access affordable psychological services.
“Taylor has been wonderful, open and honest about the services GPH can and cannot assist with.” “She has helped to connect me with services I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to find or afford.”
“She also came with me to appointments, which sometimes meant wiping dribble off the floor from my service dog who comes with me to help manage my anxiety in public,” added Ashleigh.
Taylor says seeing how far Ashleigh has come makes her happy:
“She was in a really bad place with her health management when I met her and was clearly struggling financially with her medications as well.”
“Seeing her so much happier and healthier now is why I got into health care, and why I still love my job after working here for 3 years,” added Taylor GPH’s ACT ITC Program is funded through the ACT Primary Health Network; ‘Capital Health Network’ (CHN) – An Australian Government Initiative.
