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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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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

studyHealth

3D illustration of a DNA molecule with sparkling effects symbolizing complexity and genetic diversity. Futuristic concept of genomics, precision medicine, and computational life sciences.

Depression risk lurks in the genes

Researchers say it’s now beyond doubt that depression has a biological basis as well as being the result of circumstance as the world’s largest study into the genetics of the condition identifies almost 700 genes associated with risk.

Natasha Robinson

exclusiveHealth

13/1/25: Dr James Lawyer is a child and adolescent psychiatrist working in public hospitals in western Sydney and has handed in his resignation along with 200 others. He says the system is threadbare, underfunded and psychiatrists are despondent and exhausted. John Feder/The Australian.

Psychiatrist’s lament: ‘I don’t want to resign’

Psychiatrists say their dispute with the NSW government is about far more than pay. This is why one psychiatrist is walking away from the public system.

Natasha Robinson

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/natasha-robinson/page/7