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Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio right now. I don't know

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Speaker 1: about you. If you're out there listening and you maybe

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Speaker 1: suffer from asthma like me, or you've maybe been struggling

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Speaker 1: a little bit more with your breathing. With some of

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Speaker 1: the smoke around, some of the trees that or some

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Speaker 1: of the different I guess plants that I don't know

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Speaker 1: how it even happens pollinate, and some of the different

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Speaker 1: things that are in the air, you may be finding

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Speaker 1: that you've got to pull your puffer out a little

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Speaker 1: bit more often than what you usually would. Now joining

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Speaker 1: me in the studio is the executive manager of the

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Speaker 1: Asthma Foundation here in the Northern Territory, Leanne Elliott Holmes.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Leanne, morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: I was literally leaving the gym this morning and I

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Speaker 1: could feel myself struggling a bit more to breathe than

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Speaker 1: what I usually usually do. I thought, I reckon, I

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Speaker 1: need to get the Asthma Foundation on and find out

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Speaker 1: if this is something that other people are feeling at

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Speaker 1: the moment, or if it's just like this all year round.

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Speaker 2: Na, thanks for having us.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it is a busy time with all the smoke

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Speaker 3: in the air, but also the dry season brings another

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Speaker 3: and a lot of other triggers like the colder evenings

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Speaker 3: and the older mornings is enough to trigger asthma as

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Speaker 3: well as our trees would our famous trees would tree

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Speaker 3: is in flour, so that's a big trigger. So that's

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Speaker 3: when we do get busy. But also it's our bushfire

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Speaker 3: season and so this is when we burn the bush

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Speaker 3: and so this is when we do see a lot

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Speaker 3: of people experiencing flare ups of their asthma.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, do you find that you have more people contacting

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Speaker 1: you guys to come in and have a chat about

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Speaker 1: their asthma or get in contact with you to find

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Speaker 1: out more about those services.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, definitely we do have a huge referral basis

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Speaker 3: from our GPS, but you can also self refer to us.

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Speaker 3: So if you are experiencing any problems with your asthma,

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Speaker 3: please give us a call. The thing with asthma too

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Speaker 3: is that it is triggered by certain things. And we

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Speaker 3: know that we might have a cold, cold winter here

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Speaker 3: in Darwen, but we do have a dry season and

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Speaker 3: also air cons can be a major trigger as well.

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Speaker 2: But also a lot of people.

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Speaker 3: Don't realize the link between hay fever and asthma, and

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Speaker 3: so if you're hay fever is not controlled, then your

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Speaker 3: asthma won't be controlled. So we need to be making

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Speaker 3: sure we are managing a hay fever so we can

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Speaker 3: manage our asthma. And we know that ninety percent of

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Speaker 3: people with asthma do not manage their asthma correctly, and

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Speaker 3: that simply could be not taking their medication correctly, like

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Speaker 3: not using a spacer like Katie, I've just found the

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Speaker 3: spacer out there, but no spacer, and we know that.

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Speaker 3: We know that by spraying spraying a puffa into your mouth,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't matter how long you've had asthma, how good

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Speaker 3: a technique you think you have, and trust me, over

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Speaker 3: thirteen years with the Foundation, I've heard at all that

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Speaker 3: you will get less than twelve percent of your medication

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Speaker 3: if you spray directly into your mouth, So you should

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Speaker 3: be using it with a spacer because.

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Speaker 2: Bust so the first thing I noticed.

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Speaker 3: So you know, by using a spacer you will actually

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Speaker 3: get over ninety percent of medication down into those airways.

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Speaker 2: But that's what we're here for.

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Speaker 3: You can even come in and we can do a

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Speaker 3: device technique so check that you are using your medication correctly,

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Speaker 3: check that you are using a spacer. We do have

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Speaker 3: the cheaper spaces available in in Darwin, so come and

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Speaker 3: see us. But we also do lung function testing and

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Speaker 3: it's recommended that everyone adults should have a review of

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Speaker 3: their asthma every twelve months or a week or when

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Speaker 3: they're having a flare up of their asthma, and that

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Speaker 3: would include a lung function test, which we do so

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Speaker 3: you can self refer for that, and then what we

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Speaker 3: do is we send those results with a letter to

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Speaker 3: your GP of choice and then we follow you up

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Speaker 3: whether it be three months, six monthly or twelve monthly.

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Speaker 1: Wow, well, I don't think that I have had a

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Speaker 1: long function test since I was about twelve lean, so I.

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Speaker 2: Think you need to come definitely.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I reckon there'd be plenty of asthmatics

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Speaker 1: listening this morning who are probably in a similar situation

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Speaker 1: where you know, they've just been going along having the

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Speaker 1: medication that they've been having for years, and it might

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Speaker 1: be that there could be a bit of a change

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Speaker 1: that they could undertake.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, that's the thing about asthma. It is

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Speaker 2: very common.

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Speaker 3: We know One in nine Australians have asthma and it

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Speaker 3: runs in families and it's a very strong gene, so

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Speaker 3: you do tend to get a little bit blase about

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Speaker 3: it and because.

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Speaker 2: It is so common.

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Speaker 3: But sadly we do still have one a day die

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Speaker 3: from asthma in Australia and there's no cure for asthma.

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Speaker 3: But it is a manageable condition and it is very

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Speaker 3: simple to manage that. But come and see us and

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Speaker 3: speak to us about how you can manage your asthma better.

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Speaker 1: I do want to ask you as well with little ones.

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Speaker 1: You know, with kids when they're diagnosed with asthma, I

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Speaker 1: would imagine that you know there's certain services that you

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Speaker 1: can help with at the Asthma Foundation into in terms

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Speaker 1: of their asthma plans for school and things like that

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, ultimately the plan must be signed off by

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Speaker 3: a GP, but we do offer a lot of support

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Speaker 3: to parents, particularly when children are newly diagnosed. And these

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Speaker 3: days it's very hard to get a diagnosis of an

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Speaker 3: asthma on a child under the age of seven, so

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Speaker 3: it can get very frustrating. It looks and sounds like

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Speaker 3: asthma and you're treating it like asthma, but you haven't

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Speaker 3: got that title asthma. So that's when you can come

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Speaker 3: and see us, because it is a requirement under the

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Speaker 3: Department of Education that schools are provided with asthma action plans,

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Speaker 3: whether they're diagnosed or not. If they're using a puffer,

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Speaker 3: then they do need an asthma action plan. So once again,

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Speaker 3: come and see us, and we know we can sort

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Speaker 3: that out with your GP.

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Speaker 2: But the thing with.

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Speaker 3: Asthma too is you can develop asthma at any age.

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Speaker 3: More common in boys at primary school age. Boys get

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Speaker 3: to teenageers asthma settles and often you hear blokes say, oh,

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Speaker 3: I had asthma when I was a kid, but I

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Speaker 3: grew out of it.

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Speaker 2: But they do need to know that there's no.

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Speaker 3: Cure, so it can come back at any stage in

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Speaker 3: their life. But they also need to know that they

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Speaker 3: can pass that gene onto their children. Why females, Katie

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Speaker 3: totally different. We're looking at the old female gene kicks

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Speaker 3: in around teenageyears and then with hormonal changes and pregnancy

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Speaker 3: and even menopause, we see higher rates of women with asthma,

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Speaker 3: and so with women developing asthma over the age of

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Speaker 3: sixty five, and as rate is high for women.

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Speaker 2: Really, yeah, the female genes very strong.

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Speaker 1: It's really interesting and I'm finding what you're saying really

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Speaker 1: interesting because I come from a family of asthmatics. My

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Speaker 1: father was quite a severe asthmatic. My brother used to

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Speaker 1: get hospitalized sort of every year, many many years ago,

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Speaker 1: but as you've said, then grew out of it. So

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Speaker 1: I'm finding it all pretty fascinating, not so fascinated to

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Speaker 1: hear that it could get worse for me as I

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Speaker 1: get a bit older, so I've got to manage it.

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Speaker 3: Well, Well, that's where you need to come and see

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Speaker 3: us and get a space might be a start.

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Speaker 1: It's been really good to talk to you this morning.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything else that our listeners might be sort

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Speaker 1: of interested to know about though with the Asthma Foundation

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Speaker 1: here in the territory in terms of the services that

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Speaker 1: you provide.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, the Asthma Foundation of the Northern Territory is

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Speaker 3: unique to the territory. We are independent. We're a non government,

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Speaker 3: not for profit organization. We rely on memberships, so currently

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Speaker 3: we are independent from Asthma Australia. So we are the

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Speaker 3: territory and we cover all of the Territory. We're a

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Speaker 3: very small unit and at the moment we are doing

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Speaker 3: a drive for membership but also donations because next year

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Speaker 3: we are celebrating our fortieth birthday and we really do

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Speaker 3: need the support of the of Territorians to help us

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Speaker 3: out there because we have seen with a lot of

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Speaker 3: things a drop in funding.

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Speaker 1: Well, Leanne, I really appreciate you coming in today. It's

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Speaker 1: really good to talk to you. Is there a website

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Speaker 1: that people can head to if they are after some.

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Speaker 3: More if they can go to just ww dot asthmaant

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Speaker 3: dot org dot au, or they can give us a

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Speaker 3: ring on one eight hundred Asthma or eight nine eight

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Speaker 3: one six zero double six.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Leanne, thank you so much for coming on.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Gae, appreciate it and I'll catch up with you

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Speaker 1: soon for a spacer.

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Speaker 2: Yes, good on you.

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Speaker 1: That was the executive manager there of the Asthma Foundation

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Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory, Leanne Elliott Homes