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Natasha Robinson is The Australian’s health editor and writes across medicine, science, health policy, research, and lifestyle. Natasha has been a journalist for more than 20 years in newspapers and broadcasting, has been recognised as the National Press Club’s health journalist of the year and is a Walkley awards finalist and a Kennedy Awards winner. She is a former Northern Territory correspondent for The Australian with a special interest in Indigenous health. Natasha is also a graduate of the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board’s Diploma of Law and has been accepted as a doctoral candidate at QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research, researching involuntary mental health treatment and patient autonomy.

Natasha Robinson

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myth and realityHealth

‘Basically a milkshake’: debunking the cult of protein powder

In a consumer quest for ever-higher protein intakes, protein powder has become a huge industry. But is it really giving the body what it needs?

Natasha Robinson

ExclusiveHealth

24/1/2025: Louise Williams and daughter Mikaela 16, who has a spinal cord injury. Mikaela has been waiting 15 months to approval of critical supports from the NDIS. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Mikaela is exactly who the NDIS should be supporting. So why has it left her ‘stranded’?

Sixteen-year-old Mikaela Williams has quadriplegia. But the effort of learning to get on her feet and scoot around with assistance in a walker is nothing compared to navigating the NDIS.

Natasha Robinson

HealthHealth

13/1/25: Vaper Alex Mobberley, having the nicotine levels in his blood tested by Dr Renee Bittoun who says people have no idea how dangerous vaping can be and that she is seeing teenagers having heart attacks with extraordinarily high blood pressure and high amounts of nicotine in their systems. John Feder/The Australian.

Young vaper Alex tested nicotine levels in his body — the results shocked

Nicotine levels in vapers’ bodies are being tested with an Australian-first device at a clinic in Sydney. The results are shocking.

Natasha Robinson

InquirerHealth

23/01/2025. Habilis-supported housing in Summer Hill in SydneyÃs inner-west has been established by psychiatrist Olav Nielssen who saw too many people in the mental health system who did not have a stable place to live. Pictured, resident at Habilis - David Maddox, 54, in his apartment where he has lived now for four months. Prior to moving in he had stints in both hospital and gaol. Britta Campion / The Australian

As psychiatrists quit en masse, a shocked system enters uncharted waters

It’s been called the ‘impossible profession’. As an already critical workforce crisis vastly worsens, attention is turning to the overdue task of reform.

Natasha Robinson

psychiatrist crisisHealth

OCTOBER 13, 2024: The new BRIGHT ward in the former emergency department at the QEH.. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Mental health patients languish in ED

Sydney hospital issues directive that bureaucrats undertake initial assessments of mental health patients rather than psychiatrists as resignations take effect.

Natasha Robinson

CrisisHealth

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos JANUARY 15 , 2025: Doctors and Representatives of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) gather to provide a briefing on the urgent crisis facing the NSW health system from 21 January. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

D-day for mental health as private sector steps in

Hospitals across NSW are now stripped of scores of psychiatrists as mass resignations take effect and the state government moves to active crisis footing on mental health.

Natasha Robinson

commentaryCommentary

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos SEPTEMBER 24 , 2024: Minister for Housing Rose Jackson speaks announcing the State Government's new Land Audit. Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns and Minister for Housing Rose Jackson announce the second tranche of the NSW Government land audit, releasing State Government owned property for housing. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

This is a sickening, inexorable slide over a cliff …

Public health systems have become a heartless, bureaucratic, mechanistic force that damages doctors and patients in its wake, a tragic phenomenon writ large in the NSW psychiatry dispute.

Natasha Robinson

exclusiveHealth

Mass psychiatrist resignations hit multitude of patients

Psychiatrists serve patients in public hospitals across the gamut of conditions from surgery to transplants to palliative care – all are about to be hit by the NSW mental health system crisis.

Natasha Robinson

HOMELESS SPEAK UPNation

16/01/2025. Reverend Bill Crews supports homeless people at his charity and is desperately worried about the impact of the mental health crisis in NSW. Pictured with homeless residents Joe Karadjian, 61 and Kristen Bakers, 33 at breakfast time at BillÃs restaurant Loaves and Fishes, inside his church in Ashfield, in SydneyÃs inner-west. Britta Campion / The Australian

Nation’s mental health patients’ message to minister: ‘Pull your head in’

The nation’s most vulnerable mental health patients demand psychiatrists be looked after as a charity boss urges system change.

Natasha Robinson

EXCLUSIVEHealth

15/1/24: Ariane Beetson experienced severe mental health problems as was a young mum and was admitted to a mental health hospital. She is now an author and advocate for perinatal health and says the impact on new mothers will be enormous if public mother and baby units shut beds as a result of the psychiatry dispute in NSW. John Feder/The Australian.

New mums face mental health ‘disaster’

Mother and baby mental health units are already refusing intakes as the NSW doctors’ dispute begins to hit patients and fears the shut-down of critically under-resourced services will be catastrophic rise.

Natasha Robinson

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/natasha-robinson/page/3