Aussie-Chinese Girl Reflects on Her Med Practitioner Journey

The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared an El Nino year yesterday, but what the heck is an El Nino and what does it mean for us Aussies?  "Official" definition: El Nino is part of a natural cycle termed ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation), along w El Nina and "neutral". It is one of the most influential natural phenomena that affects yearly climate variability in Australia. Dummy 101 definition: El Nino = warm spells i.e. we gonn melt more than usual this summer  Significance: El Nino years typically mean ↑ fire risk in SE Aus Reduced rainfall Warmer temp Shift in temp extremes  (n.b. some places will have both higher one-day avg temp and longer warm spells, whilst elsewhere e.g. Melb more likely to have higher one-day avg temp but shorter overall warm spells) Increased frost risk (due to reduced cloud coverage, can get colder-than-avg night-time temps) Reduced tropical cyclone numbers Later monsoon onset Decreased alpine snow depths Time to stock up on ...

What is R U OK all about?  - National public health charity → National Conversation Movement  - Started by Gavin Larkin in 2009 as a why to champion just one question in honour of his father, Barry Larkin, who tragically passed from suicide in 1997 much to the shock and grief of his family, friends, and everyone else around him - Collation of resources developed from LIVED EXPERIENCE to support HELP-GIVERS in asking R U OK and having the skills, knowledge, and confidence to engage in MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION if the answer is no  - Suicide prevention is the RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL  - Campaign about building INFORMAL SUPPORT NETWORK → friends, family, colleagues, local communities, interest groups etc START THE CONVO TODAY Click here for more tips & tricks!  “Without R U OK? the landscape would look very different. There is great value in demonstrating to the whole community that they can contribute to suicide prevention and then, importantly, showing them how. ...