Power to Care

03/12/2025

Free Skin Check Bus Coming Soon!

Local Lions clubs (Trentham, Kyneton, Woodend, Gisborne, Riddells Creek and Lancefield-Romsey) have again banded together to fund and host “the Skin Check Bus”. In April 2024 we hosted two weekends and were able to examine over 200 people. 40% of whom were recommended to seek further medical care.

The Skin Check Bus dates are 31 January / 1 February 2026 in Woodend. Bookings will open in January through Woodend Lions website. Local Lions clubs will issue information closer to the time.

Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and Lions Clubs in Victoria and Southern NSW are doing something practical about reducing that level and its impact on families.

The incorporated charity, the Lions V Districts Cancer Foundation, has put a Skin Check and Awareness Unit on the road, following excellent financial support from Lions Clubs and generous public and private supporters. It’s a much sought after resource.

The van will provide a 🆓 skin checking service to local people and will be operated by fully trained, certificated and professionally supervised volunteers. The unit will also be a valuable resource for local people to access not only the skin check, but valuable and timely information about skin care and self-checking techniques.

We know early detection of skin lesions potentially saves lives, so this visit will be a timely support and reminder to local people of the need to take care of their skin.

Following the skin check, visitors will be issued with a referral to their GP if there are any suspect spots or lesions. The Unit is not a medical clinic, so diagnosis or treatment requirements are not discussed – it simply provides the skin check and alerts the visitor to skin lesions that require further checking and attention: a great first step in ensuring urgent needs are addressed.

The airconditioned van has three fully equipped checking rooms and an entry foyer, as well as a disabled lift and entry at the rear.

Gisborne and District Lions Club Woodend Lions Club Lancefield Romsey Lions Club Trentham Lions Club Inc. Lions Club of Kyneton

03/12/2025

Be careful if you self manage plans. Just because an organisation tells you they are “NDIS” approved, it might not be true, and there’s more to it than that. What you purchase with NDIS funds has to be what has been agreed to according to the plan’s goals which are usually split into the three Cs:
CORE - everyday hep like support workers, cleaning etc (the doing)
CAPACITY BUILDING - often therapy (the experts)
CAPITAL - big ticket items like wheelchairs, bathroom modifications etc

Hundreds of businesses have been referred to the consumer watchdog for peddling NDIS-approved products like ready-made meals, mattresses, cleaning services and mental health packages following a year-long crackdown.

Well-known retailers like Bed Shed and popular appliance brand Thermomix were among the 604 cases referred to the ACCC.

Six matters were also referred to the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, and 112 cases were referred to the NDIS Commission over breaches of the NDIS Provider Code of Conduct, with affected businesses coughing up more than $100,000 in fines.

In May of this year, Thermomix manufacturer Vorwerk Australia was forced to pay $79,200 after promoting its TM6, an all-in-one cooking and blending appliance, and Kobold cordless vacuum and mop as being endorsed by the NDIS.

Bedshed was also hit with a $39,600 fine over misleading claims its mattresses, furniture and bedding were NDIS approved and permitted.

Other examples which were referred to the ACCC over suspected breaches of Australian consumer law include NDIS ready-made meals, mental health tool boxes and care packages advertised with a ‘I love NDIS’ logo, emergency NDIS accommodation and “NDIS-approved cleaning services”.

Rules outlined by the National Disability Insurance Agency clearly state the body does not endorse or approve products and services.

NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said there was no tolerance for businesses which mislead “people with disability for profit”.

This comes after Labor introduced laws which will allow the NDIS Commissioner to hit a business or person with an anti-promotion order, with maximum fines of up to $40,000 for noncompliance.

“If a business is purposefully deceiving NDIS participants to make a quick buck then

it will be held accountable,” she said.

Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh said targeting people with disabilities and their families is a “gross breach of trust”.

“It is a deliberate attempt to drain public funds set aside for their support,” he said.

“If your business model relies on trying to trick people with disability, expect consequences.”

03/12/2025

For our female carers….

"Today’s woman often faces an unrelenting load: building a career, proving her worth, staying competitive, while simultaneously managing a home and caring for her family. She is doing two full-time jobs—the paid one and the unpaid one at home. Menopause isn’t landing on a rested body; it’s landing on a body already stretched thin."

Article link in comments. 👇

01/12/2025

Interdependence- love it!

01/12/2025

01/12/2025

The Australian Institute of Family Studies has produced a series of short, easy-to-read information sheets to help build understanding about neurodivergence and how best to support neurodivergent children and young people.

✨ What is Neurodivergence?:https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-07/RS-Neurodiversity.pdf

✨ Supporting Sensory Processing for Neurodivergent Children:https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-07/RS-Sensory-processing.pdf

✨ Strategies to Support Neurocognitive Functioning for Neurodivergent Children:https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-07/RS-Neurocognitive-functioning.pdf

01/12/2025

Our last catch up for 2025! Different venue this time around. Hope to see you there.

29/11/2025

29/11/2025

Carers don’t have a lot of time but we’re constantly told to make time for “self care” (so we can keep on caring). This carer knows how much the latest creative activity I’ve taken up (albeit with some interruptions) has made a huge difference to my wellbeing!!!! Power to Care wants to make sure carers have free and/or affordable access to these activities to prevent burnout and promote wellbeing. Some call it social prescription. We call it commonsense. Keep us connected with what makes us happy, and with people in our community, and there will be a greater chance that we will thrive rather than just barely survive.

Living up to their creative potential might be the simplest way for someone to improve their life. “Make creativity a life habit,” Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2024. “That means working at your creative practice regularly, not just when you feel like it.” https://theatln.tc/4pZMmtRv

Modern research in neuroscience and psychology has revealed that actively engaging in creative pursuits is an effective way to gain relief from negative emotions and increase one’s sense of well-being. In 2021, researchers found that for students and working adults, there’s a positive correlation between self-perceived creativity and life satisfaction. Activities such as poetry therapy can also “reduce anxiety and post-traumatic-stress symptoms in patients,” Brooks continues. Even “simply working on creative solutions to common problems can relieve psychological burdens.”

“I have found that many professional artists—an unusually anxious group—seek relief from their affliction by losing themselves,” Brooks writes. Neuroscience offers an explanation for how creativity can lower negative emotions: A 2015 study found that during the idea-generation phase of writing, the part of the brain associated with mind-wandering is especially active. This “suggests that creative activity might have some of the same analgesic effects on stress as contemplative exercises do,” Brooks explains.

With so many creative outlets to choose from, finding one that “fits your personality and tastes can be daunting,” Brooks explains. Luckily, your personality type can offer clues: “Extroverted, novelty-seeking people should try inventive, public avenues such as improv drama and jazz; introverted people who like new experiences might do better in the field of fiction writing,” Brooks writes. “Extroverts who prefer to interpret the works of others can try theater or classical music; introverts in the same vein might prefer studying poetry.”

Regardless of your chosen artistic activity, you will benefit from exercising your creative brain. “Make a habit of your creative pursuit, and feel better as a result—and maybe even inspired,” Brooks continues.

Read more: https://theatln.tc/4pZMmtRv

🎨: Jan Buchczik

26/11/2025

To the Parent Who Is Barely Holding It Together

The one who wakes up already tired.
The one who has learned to brace before the day even begins.
The one who loves their child fiercely, but wonders, quietly:
“Why does this feel so hard for us when it seems so easy for everyone else?”

I see you.

You’re not failing.
You’re not broken.
You’re not “too sensitive” or “overreacting.”
You’re parenting in conditions most people will never understand.

When every day feels like firefighting…
When simple things turn into battles…
When other parents talk about screen limits and chore charts and “just being consistent”, and you go silent, because that’s not your reality…

That silence doesn’t mean you’re alone.
It means you’ve had to become fluent in a language most people don’t speak.

A language of nervous systems.
Of safety before compliance.
Of walking on eggshells not because you’re weak, but because you’re wise.
Of loving a child whose needs are bigger than the world was prepared for.

You are not a bad parent.
You are a regulated anchor in a storm no one else can see.
You are adapting every minute of every day, and adaptation is not failure.
It is evidence of love.

If no one has told you lately:

You are doing an impossible job in an impossible system.
Your exhaustion makes sense.
Your grief is valid.
Your hope is still alive, even on days you can’t feel it.

And one day, someone will say, “You were the person who never gave up on me.”
That someone will be the child who is melting down today.

You don’t need to be perfect.
You just need to stay real, stay gentle, and stay on their side, even when they can’t stay on theirs.

I’m proud of you.
Your child is safe because of you.
And you don’t have to do this alone.