Primary Care Council: Sleep advances in primary care
12 September 2024
Welcome to the Australasian Sleep Association’s newsletter from the Primary Care Council. We offer regular updates on our work in promoting sleep health in primary care, and keep you informed about recent education opportunities that may be of interest.
Essential Health Summit
The Essential Health Summit in July was a joint conference of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) and the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ASLM) held in Adelaide. The event brought together many different health professional groups including primary care nurses, GPs with an interest in lifestyle medicine and allied health such as physiotherapists and psychologists to talk about preventative health and primary care delivery of health care.
Nicole Grivell and Alexander Sweetman represented the Australasian Sleep Association, speaking to hundreds of primary care clinicians and researchers at the ASA stand right in the middle of the exhibition hall! They spent time promoting the primary care guidelines for management of OSA and chronic insomnia and speaking to health professionals and policymakers about the importance of good sleep and ways of integrating sleep disorder management into general practice care.
Nicole and Alex also presented in several sessions: Nicole presented about the potential management of chronic insomnia by general practice nurses - but with a “twist” – by using comedy to share the science, and Alex along with Professor Nick Zwar (Bond University) presented an insomnia management skill building session. Both sessions had standing room only – evidence of a successful event!
Digital CBTi availability in Australian primary care
The ASA and Sleep Health Foundation recently submitted a joint proposal to the Department of Health and Aged Care to fund an implementation trial to improve access to digital CBTi in Australian primary care. Self-guided interactive digital CBTi programs are an evidence-based and scalable approach to improve access to CBTi throughout Australia. With appropriate screening for suitability and safety, digital CBTi has potential to improve CBTi access, support the limited number of clinicians with specific training in CBTi delivery, and improve the landscape of insomnia management in Australia.
Sleep Central
The ASA has recently launched Sleep Central, a brand new website for primary care clinicians and patients.
One of its exciting features is an online register of psychologists with training and/or expertise in CBTi delivery. This aims to increase access to ‘sleep’ psychologists among prospective clients and referring clinicians. The register currently includes psychologists who are ASA members and psychologists who have completed the Australian Psychological Society CBTi education module.
Primary care education podcasts
On behalf of the ASA GP Education Subcommittee, thank you to all sleep health content experts who have recently featured on HealthEd medical education podcasts!
These podcasts are accessed by thousands of Australian clinicians.
If you are not AHPRA registered, please contact Alex for an ASA Member password to access the podcasts. Please also contact Alex if you have any sleep health topics that you are interested in pitching for a podcast with HealthEd.
Australian Journal of General Practice sleep special issue
The June issue of the Australian Journal of General Practice was focused on sleep!
This longitudinal series includes articles for general practice staff on sleep health and sleep disorder assessment and management throughout the lifespan.
Topics include sleep in infants and toddlers, adolescence, diagnosis and management of OSA and shift workers. Each article includes evidence-based information and practical recommendations that are tailored for fast-paced general practice settings.
Sleep and sleep-related disorders chapter in the new ‘Red Book’
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has recently published an updated (10th) edition of the ‘Guidelines for preventive activities in general practice’, otherwise known as the Red Book. This edition was much anticipated, as the Red Book is widely accepted as one of the main evidence-based guides to the provision of preventive care in Australian general practice.
This edition of the Red Book includes a section on ‘Sleep and sleep-related disorders’ for the first time. Although screening for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and insomnia in the general population is not recommended, there is a recommendation for case finding for OSA in people with symptoms or risk factors. There are links to various evidence-based resources such as the Sleep Health Primary Care Resources website as well as to questionnaires used to identify patients with OSA and insomnia disorder.
The Red Book also provides ‘Practice points’ for primary care health professionals around advice on behaviour modification for patients with OSA risk factors and advice around good sleep habits to prevent sleep problems.
For more information on the ASA Primary Care Implementation Network, or to join the group, please see this page.
If you have any suggestions for this newsletter please contact either Nicole Grivell ([email protected]) or Dr Jenny Haycock ([email protected]).