About Primary Breathe Australia

This website has been created for people living with stable daily breathlessness that persists even with full treatment of the medical condition(s) causing it. The information is designed to be used alongside support from a health professional. This resource has been created to support people taking part in the Primary Breathe Australia clinical trial in the community. This research is being led by Prof Natasha Smallwood at The School of Translational Medicine at Monash University.

Please do not use this website if your breathing is worsening quickly, or you are developing other symptoms like a cough, fever or chest pain. You need to seek urgent medical advice. You can contact your GP or call 000.

Start on the home page to find general information about breathlessness. It’s worth taking a look at this video which explains the BTF model and the three cycles, Breathing, Thinking and Functioning. It will help you:

understand your breathing and what can make it worse
and – importantly – see that your breathing can improve!
work out which strategies are likely to be most helpful for you

Click on the one of Breathing, Thinking or Functioning that you and your health professional consider most relevant to you. In each of these sections, you will find:

a video to help understand the cycle
information about how to break the cycle
four simple helpful strategies to help the breathing

You might want to follow your chosen one or two strategies exactly like it’s described. It’s also fine to amend them so that they are just right for you.