2024 HEPATITIS NSW CHERYL BURMAN AWARD WINNER

The Cheryl Burman Award is named in honour of former community activist and leader, teacher, mother, Hepatitis NSW Board member and President – Cheryl Burman, who died on 9 August 2011 after a long struggle with hepatitis C-related liver disease.

As President, Cheryl led the then Hepatitis C Council of NSW through a difficult time, putting her great people skills and wisdom, sharp intellect, heartfelt passion and great leadership capabilities to excellent use.
The Award is presented to an individual or team in NSW, to recognise outstanding commitment to the advancement of prevention, support, information provision, management or treatment for people living with viral hepatitis.

This year’s Award goes to a team doing all they can to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030. As the nomination states, it is a rare achievement to get four hepatology nurses attending one outreach event for the community. This epitomises the commitment, resourcefulness and determination of this team to serve their community and provide the highest quality health care.

Their work is often away from the spotlight and rarely gets the broader recognition they deserve. They were doing GeneXpert Point of Care Testing before it was cool. They were doing hep B testing before it was fashionable. They were taking a health van of expert nurses out to communities before almost anyone else, finding people who needed liver-focused healthcare.

The team treat our hep B and C communities with unmatched commitment, care, dedication and love. They are the perfect partner – fabulous to work with, superb at providing care, show constant innovation and leadership, and are a true asset to our efforts to achieve elimination.

The winner of the 2024 Cheryl Burman Award is the Liver Outreach Team, Storr Liver Centre, Westmead Hospital.

The Liver Outreach Team is recognised for pioneering work, innovation, leadership, and dedication to viral hepatitis elimination efforts, and unwavering commitment and care shown to communities affected by hepatitis B and C when providing the highest quality outreach-based healthcare.

HEPATITIS NSW SERVICES AND ANNUAL REPORT

The Hepatitis NSW Services and Annual Report 2023/24 was launched at our Annual General Meeting held on 28 November 2024. The report gives a snapshot of our work and its impact, as well as describing the programs and services we provide for people living with or affected by hepatitis C and hepatitis B in NSW. You can download a copy from our website and view the video version here.

HEPATITIS NSW AT “TACKLING STIGMA CONFERENCE”

Mina from our Hepatitis B and Multicultural Liver Health Team participated in the Centre for Social Research in Health ‘Tackling Stigma Conference’ on Thursday, 21 November, along with our lived experience speaker, Jin. Mina and Jin presented on our ‘Write to be Heard’ initiative.

During COVID, Hepatitis NSW organised a hepatitis B writing competition, gathering 12 meaningful stories that were published in a book titled ‘Write to Be Heard’. The book was published in English, Chinese and Korean. This story-telling project gave people a platform to share their hepatitis B story – often for the first time – and bringing community together, while also creating an invaluable opportunity for stigma reduction. Our author participants continue to connect through a chat group and have even taken on roles as lived experience speakers for Hepatitis NSW.

The presentation was extremely well received and several of the attendees approached the team to give their compliments.

Mina and Jin did a wonderful job of sharing these stories at the conference, bringing light to the real lives behind hepatitis B – not just the labels, symptoms, or statistics, but the personal stories that exist around us.

AND ALSO AT NUAA PaC “BEYOND BARS”

NUAA’s 2024 Peers and Consumers (PaC) forum – with the theme of “Merging worlds: Intersections of Identity and Experience” – was a diverse, informative event with an excellent range of topical discussions included across the program.

Kiah, one of our Hepatitis NSW peers and a lived experience speaker, did a brilliant job of opening the forum after Binowee Bayles’ Welcome to Country.

There was a genuine focus on the value of lived experience across the forum. The first session and following panel hosted working academics who identified as people with a lived experience of drug use.
A key takeaway was the friction between identity, authenticity and inclusivity of research being conducted in the AOD and peer space.

Hepatitis NSW had a full roster of representation of staff including:

On Day Two, Liam – Coordinator of the Hepatitis NSW Peer Partnership Program, was part of the ‘Beyond Bars: is prison abolition possible?’ panel. Liam participated in this important conversation, providing insights from a lived experience community perspective. It was a productive, free flowing dialogue with fellow panellists Dr Mindy Sotiri, Justice Reform Initiative’s Executive Director, and Brett Collins, Coordinator of Justice Action. The audience also offered insightful commentary on issues within the criminal justice system and the need for reform to drug laws.

One of the final panels ‘Beyond HCV: What happens after elimination’ saw Hepatitis NSW CEO, Steven Drew, take part in this critical discussion of what happens in the sector once hep C elimination targets have been met. The panel included Bindi, one of our valued peers and a Redfern NSP worker, and Bianca Prain, Director, Public Health Programs, NSW Health. The discussion covered how organisations like Hepatitis NSW can continue to serve the community and work productively with Ministry of Health to ensure elimination targets remain intact.

Overall, the Forum provided an excellent platform for people, peers and practitioners from the AOD/BBV Health/Justice sectors and communities to collaborate and engage each other on important topics related to critical sections of Hepatitis NSW’s work.

NSW DRIED BLOOD SPOT STUDY WINS NSW HEALTH INNOVATION AWARD

The NSW Ministry of Health partnered with NSW Health Pathology, Justice Health NSW and Local Health Districts to validate the Dried Blood Spot (DBS) test for diagnosing hepatitis C (HCV). The first of its kind project aims to make DBS testing a standard diagnostic tool, which will change how HCV testing is offered for people at risk of HCV.

Hepatitis NSW supported the validation project with our peer workers helping to recruit participants into this ground-breaking study.

Congratulations!
Follow this link for the full story.

HEP C ELIMINATION ANNUAL REPORT 2024

The Burnet and Kirby Institutes presented Australia’s progress towards hepatitis C elimination: annual report 2024 in an online launch on 14 November 2024.
The report brings together data from across 15 different sources, to give an overview of Australia’s progress towards hepatitis C elimination.

Key Findings:

• Between 2016 and 2023, more than 105,940 Australians were treated for hepatitis C including 5,499 people treated in 2023.
• There is encouraging data on new hepatitis C infections, with declines in incidence and prevalence seen.
• There were promising signs of increases in testing and treatment in 2023.
• People starting hepatitis C treatment in prison continues to represent a large and increasing proportion of all treatments nationally.
• Challenges remain however including that many people living with hepatitis C, and people who inject drugs, continue to report experiencing stigma and discrimination.
• Some people diagnosed with hepatitis C were then not engaged in ongoing care and treatment.
• Up to 20% of people surveyed in the community reported borrowing needles and syringes
• There remained 68,890 people living with hepatitis at the end of 2023.

You can access the full report here. Read the 2023 report here

NEW NATIONAL SURVEY FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HEP B

People living with hepatitis B can experience a range of everyday issues and problems.  This includes small, day-to-day issues or it may involve larger challenges.

The Legal Needs Study (LeNS) is the first ever national survey of these everyday issues for people living with hepatitis B. It aims to improve the health, wellbeing and everyday life of people living with hepatitis B.

To participate, you must be:

• Over 18 years of age
• Living with hepatitis B
• Living in Australia

The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete. Everyone who completes the survey can enter a draw to win a $250 gift voucher. All responses to the survey are completely anonymous, and no identifying information is collected.

To learn more or to complete the survey click here.

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