Bullying a medical issue, says crusading Queensland doctor

A QUEENSLAND doctor who cheated death in the Himalayas is now on the frontline of a global effort to have bullying recognised as a cause of serious health problems.

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QUEENSLAND doctor James Scott is on the frontline of a global effort to have bullying recognised as a cause of serious health problems.

Dr Scott, who is no stranger to adversity, having survived a 43-day ordeal lost in the Himalayas in his early 20s, has spent the past two years fighting for the medical world to acknowledge the damaging consequences of childhood bullying and victimisation.

The child and adolescent psychiatrist will now bring his expertise to the Premier’s Anti-Cyberbullying Task Force.

This week, Dr Scott and the 13 other specialists who comprise the Government Task Force charged with establishing a new framework to tackle the growing social crisis, met in Brisbane for the first time.

Dr Scott said his interest in trying to get greater medical recognition of the effects of bullying was sparked a decade ago from his clinical practice.

“Some 10 years ago I was looking at the kids coming in with suicidality and depression and the only risk factor I could see was that they were being bullied at school, and quite often kids were coming in from the same school,” he said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk talks to James Scott, Holly Erskine and Hannah Thomas as part of the Anti-Cyberbullying Task Force. Picture: Annette Dew

If Dr Scott and his research team at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research are successful, bullying will be accepted by the Global Burden of Disease as a risk factor for mental illnesses like anxiety and depression.

This would make bullying only the second psychosocial risk factor identified as cause of health problems, after child sexual abuse, and governments across the globe would be forced to divert more resources to tackling the problem.

Dr Scott played down suggestions that his personal experience 25 years ago surviving more than 40 days lost in the Himalayan winter helps him better understand the despair and hopelessness of many young bullying victims.

“I have had a wealth of life experience, as will have every other member of the taskforce,” he said.

“I think everyone on the taskforce will have some lived experience of difficulties.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was wonderful to have Dr Scott on board and looked forward to working with him.

“They (parents) need to have those conversations, that’s the first step,” she said.

Queensland’s Isolated Parents Association president Kim Hughes has meanwhile called on the Queensland Government to consider expanding the Task Force to include a representative from the state’s regional and remote communities.

Leading cyber safety educator Susan McLean said it was also disappointing there was no one on the Task Force from the eSafety Commission or with specific expertise in cyber safety.