Beat the Heat

Country

Australia

Keyworld

Recommendations; repository; awareness-raising

Level:

Macro

Macro

Main result

Repository

Title

BEAT THE HEAT – NSW’s Government Health section website

Date

The New South Wales’ environmental health web page reports the good practices to protect older adults during heatwaves. It is under control and constant monitoring. It was updated at the end of November 2023 with a list of useful websites and a “to- do or not-to-do” list of good practices.

Objectives

This dedicated part of the NSW’Government website acts as a good practice guide with the aim to expand the knowledge of the whole population (but especially the older population) about potential risks, the preventive practices and all the solutions connected on how to face a heatwave including older adults with specific medical conditions and age-related-issues.

Location/geographical coverage

“Beat the heat” and other heatwaves-related good practices and advice websitesare implemented in Australia, more specifically in the New South Wales State. As far as Victoria State is concerned, more specifically, the region of the

“Mornington Peninsula Shire”, they built up a whole committee to ward and protect the interests of the elderly community in 2006: the P.E.A.C.E Committee (Peninsula advisory committee for elders) presents good practices to adopt during heatwaves.

Organisation responsible for good practice

“Beat the Heat” is a dedicated website of the New South Wales’ Ministry of health; its whole implementation depends on the NSW’s government.

Stakeholders and partners

The targets of the advice and the first beneficiaries are the elderly people of the NSW State, but also babies and children and people with health conditions. Of course, the website is open to everyone.

The final target and users of the recommendations from the “Beat the Heat”

platform correspond to the most vulnerable sections of the population.

Short summary

The “Beat the Heat” section of the governmental website recommends a series of steps and practices to reduce the risks for elderly and vulnerable people in case of a prolonged exposure to high levels of heat. A section is dedicated to a list of good tips to adopt when experiencing heat sickness, another section of “beat the heat” is dedicated to highlight who is at greater risk of heat-related health problems, a third section is dedicated to the preventive practices in order to “plan ahead to beat the heat”. Last but not least, another section of the website is dedicated to learning the signs and the symptoms of the heat-related illness and on how to cure and treat them with first-aid operations.

This information can be easily accessed by everyone in any language (Arabic,

Chinese, Croatian, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese are the

languages available for the translation of the website). Emergency numbers, “help and support” and “stay informed” are other three different sections available from the website dedicated to the self-monitoring and control of heat waves.

Impact

Because of “El Niño” heatwave-related-effects (a natural climate phenomenon that develops every two to seven years when the Pacific Ocean experiences "warmer-than-average" surface temperatures) especially during the Spring-Summer period of 2023 and 2024 in Australia, the webpage resulted particularly useful. For what concerns the “PEACE Committee” of the Victoria State, it met multiple times during the previous summer period.

Innovation

“Beat the Heat” provides people with information on how hot weather influences their health, how to prepare for and stay healthy in the heat, how people can recognise and treat heat-related illness, and how they can care for people who are at risk of heat-related illness. The approach is therefore oriented to boost prevention of the health consequences of heatwaves.

Lessons learned

The “Beat the Heat” governmental site dedicated to health and well-being aims to protect health and reduce the harm caused by major heat exposure especially for vulnerable people above all the elderly. Its main purpose is to spread the knowledge as widely as possible but also to make people feel secure with the support of the local governmental authority.

One of the most interesting outcomes is a list of good practices to follow while

beating the heatwave. It also provides advice on how to live during the hot weather, this is one of the most visited parts of the website.

A section on “how to prepare and pack for the heatwave” was the brand-new

implemented part to explain to the elderly how to beat the heat from inside their

home.

Sustainability

The practice is already quite environmentally friendly since a lot of information is

online. The problem could be to reach the most isolated elderly who do not navigate the web. As long as the Ministry supports the actions against heatwaves a general guarantee is provided though it needs to be kept on the agenda. A strong integrated and sustainable coordination and approach with all actors of the chain involved is needed (Health and Social Sector, third sector, family associations, civil society, older people associations, academic field).

Replicability and/or up-scaling

The series of heatwave-related good practices both at the national and state level are extremely well implemented in Australia. Two of the main examples are the NSW’ Government “Beat the heat” website and the other is the “P.E.A.C.E.

Committee” from Mornington Peninsula Shire; both of them represent the State and local commitment of the administrative and public institutions to be part of the promotion and implementation of wide-spread good practices. Most of the nursing homes are directly managed by the central government; the government subsidizes the major part of the nursing homes throughout the

territory in order to provide adequate care at affordable costs. The main actions to support the senior population are implemented by governmental or local

authorities; Universities and Research Institutions contribute to promote studies on heatwaves. In order to extend the practices at a wider scale it could be useful to involve also the private sector.

Contact details

LINK “Beat the Heat”:

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/beattheheat/Pages/default.aspx

Link of the contact page:

(at the end of the column)

.................................

Link “P.E.A.C.E.”

https://www.mornpen.vic.gov.au/Community-Services/Aged-Disability-

Support/Peninsula-Advisory-Committee-for-Elders-PACE

Contact of the “Positive ageing officer for community partnerships”:

positiveageing@mornpen.vic.gov.au or you can email directly to the PACE

committee on pace.issues@gmail.com