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14 AWARENESS SPOTLIGHT Looking after ... Her Heart It’s no secret that heart care is vital for long-term health and wellbeing. This month we speak with Professor Karen-leigh Edward, Acting CEO, Her Heart, to gain insight into an organisation shining the spotlight on women’s heart health. Tell us a little about your background. How and why did you come to work for Her Heart? I’ve worked in health all my career. I started in mental health, working with people with mental health disorders, and then moved into the drug and alcohol area. In more recent times, I’ve worked in the physical health arena. I have a degree in psychology, and in nursing, and a PhD in health science. In the last decade, I had been working in the area of physical and mental comorbidity, which means physical illness and mental illness coexisting. This fits nicely with the By Margaret Mielczarek. cardiac population because it’s been well established, that for people at risk of heart disease, depression is an independent risk factor. A lot of my work has been in and around gender-specific differences in healthcare. Years ago, I was the women’s mental health manager at Austin Health, which was looking at women and gender-sensitive care, and also considering mental wellbeing. My role was to manage the consultants who worked in that space at that time. \\\\\\\[Working in\\\\\\\] gender-specific care, self-care and physical and mental comorbidity \\\\\\\[has\\\\\\\] led me to work with Her Heart on the prevention of heart disease in women. I think this really works quite nicely with the programs that Her Heart delivers and the projects and campaigns that are underpinned by the pillars of prevention, which include awareness, education, research and advocacy – they all speak to my skill set in a very meaningful way. Tell us more about Her Heart. How did the organisation come about and what are its aims, purpose and goals? Her Heart has campaigned for the past five years to raise awareness that heart disease is very relative to women. RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • APR 2021