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.
Mental Health
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.
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.
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.
Mental health bed closures for new mums a ‘national disaster’
The closure of beds in perinatal mother and baby mental health units holds potentially catastrophic risks.
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.
‘I want to talk but no one is listening’: What men really say about mental health
When I called for men to talk about their mental health, the comments from readers described how they really felt. Here’s how they responded.
Suffering brain fog, confusion and anxiety? This may be the cause
For women, cognitive changes like forgetfulness, sleeplessness, irritability and confusion cannot only be frustrating – but deeply unnerving.
My 10-point plan to fix the mental health system
A former chair of Mental Health Australia, who quit this year in frustration at the lack of progress in addressing need, offers a blueprint for reform.
Deadly neglect of mentally ill a national shame
Matt Berriman, who suffers from bipolar disorder, says Australia’s mental health system almost cost him his life when he was admitted four years ago. Now he wants to see change.
‘Nowhere to go’: supported housing could ease the burden of mental illness
Investments in housing for those with severe mental illness would reap enormous gains and savings for the nation.
Shocking plight of mentally ill ‘a stain on nation’
Health Minister Mark Butler describes the atrocious health outcomes, social exclusion and widespread homelessness as ‘a shocking reflection on our community’. The situation is revealed in a report by The Australian and Australian National University.
The scandalous neglect of our mentally ill living in remote areas
Indigenous people in remote communities suffer some of the most complex mental health problems yet have an almost complete lack of access to psychiatric and psychology services.
Home truths: jails overflow as mentally ill live on the streets
Since the closure of mental asylums, the ranks of prisoners and the homeless have swelled with the severely mentally ill.
Shocking life expectancy gap has not shifted in a century
The huge gap in life expectancy between those with severe mental illness and the rest of the population is growing in Australia, with no improvement in sight.
The reality of living with schizophrenia in Australia
People with schizophrenia experience disability and disadvantage that limits their ability to live a fulfilling life. This is how it often ends.
‘As a father I’m heartbroken, as a taxpayer I’m appalled’
Patrick Leunig went to a top private school and was set to study law. Then his life spiralled downwards. His grief-stricken father tells of how our system failed his son.
Freedom fight: Locked up and invisible in the heart of Australia
A young Aboriginal man’s escape from hell charts a community win for one of the many cognitively impaired and mentally troubled First Nations offenders who languish in our prison system.
‘My nightmare of trauma and terror’
I am a 29-year-old woman living with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. I spent most of my younger years in and out of the public mental health system. This is my story.
‘The mental health ward became my prison cell’: a patient’s plea for change
Billie spent more than 1000 days in hospital before she turned 18. Damaged but determined, she is now speaking out for mental health reform.
Australia has a chance to fix its mental health system. Will we take it?
Australia’s broken mental health system has failed hundreds of thousands of people with severe illness with ineffective care – and that’s if they can access any at all. But one initiative may shift the dial.
Australians suffering aged-care anxiety
The majority of older Australians are suffering a crisis of confidence as they age and the possibility of moving into aged care looms.
Could I have done more? The question that haunts me
I knew my friend was in a terrible way – three days before he died I told my wife I was worried he was going to kill himself. But I didn’t tell him that.
Doom scrolling really does make you more depressed, study finds
Research suggests that people with poorer mental health are more likely to read negative content when browsing, which in turns makes them feel worse.
Business warns of IR mental health toll
More than a third of small business operators have been diagnosed with a mental health condition amid the cost-of-living crisis, an increase in red tape and Labor’s industrial relations changes.
Di Pilla data centre fund’s ‘upsized’ IPO poised to grow
After a string of big acquisitions and amid significant investor demand, David Di Pilla’s new REIT will list with an IPO of $2.75bn and global ambitions.
How Big Tech created the ‘anxious generation’
The revolution starts here: we’ve over-parented our kids – but let them run wild on social media. Now a growing movement of fed-up parents are fighting to keep kids off smartphones.
Five-year warning for crucial service
Almost one-third of Australian GPs are intending to retire by 2028, placing further pressure on the health system.
Better weapons for the war on suicide
The federal government will establish a national network of 40 multidisciplinary clinics to cater for people with complex mental health.
Feel sad? It’s probably not depression
Despite the circumstances of a global pandemic, most people’s mental health is fine.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/topics/mental-health/page/2