Living with a chronic disease is difficult at the best of times, add in the additional stresses of everyday life - like holding down a job, paying bills, raising a family, plus heartbreaking life moments like losing friends and family members, drug affordability and consistent monitoring of your health and it’s no wonder that many chronic diseases are now extended to show their impact on mental health and general wellbeing.
It is extremely important that health professionals in Australian CF Clinics are qualified and well trained in identifying and caring for people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and a mental health condition. We also believe there is so much information that should be made available for people with CF, their families, carers, and friends.
In November 2018, we we lucky to bring two exceptional mental health professionals from the United States - Alexandra Quittner (Miami) and Anna Georgiopolous (Boston) to Australia to brief our community and to train our health professionals across the country in CF specific mental health.