Medcast news and blog
School Teachers: The Forgotten Frontline Workers of COVID-19
School teachers have been hit hard by COVID-19. Since the start of 2020, teaching roles and demands have changed significantly. One key change was the rapid addition of new online methods of teaching. This was crucial to cater for students still in the classroom and those who had to learn at home during lockdowns or quarantine.
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Music as therapy – and not just for us!
“What a night...we needed it!” This was one of many responses to a musical soiree I held at our home on a Sunday evening in late May. The flood in expressions of gratitude reflected how much we all valued playing and reconnecting. This was an inaugural event, an idea to get some of our Musicus Medicus members together again.
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Writing Our Stress Away
As you may know, I’m a big fan of writing as a stress management tool. There’s even evidence to support the idea!
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Tips for integrating digital mental health into clinical practice
In late 2020, I was lucky enough to start in a new role at The Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety & Depression (CRUfAD) at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. This was the year in which there were many challenges and barriers to accessing mental health care, as we all faced the extreme uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Working Towards Wellbeing – Mental Health Skills Videos for the Time Poor
Do you ever struggle with explanations around mental health interventions? Do you need to learn some interventions that may be useful in your own life?
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In Two Minds About Work
Once upon a time I would have baulked at any conversation about retirement. Even a chat about superannuation would have given me a vague feeling of nausea. For me, both subjects carried with them very unpleasant notions – old age, senescence, incapacity and burdensomeness.
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DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association) - Where did it come from?
I've been reading about the history of classification of mental illness – especially in relation to the DSM – and I’ve learnt a few things that I thought might be worth sharing many of which I found in an article highlighted in my Medscape daily news feed.
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The Sticky Business of Retirement from Health Care
A taxi driver asked me recently if I was still working. I hurriedly assured him that I was indeed “still working” as I was not yet old enough to retire – that, I’m afraid, was a lie!. What surprised me was the rush of emotion the question provoked and the amazing need to tell that lie. What is the matter with me?
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Navigating the Unfamiliar World
So much has been written about fear, anxiety and stress in the COVID era. And I certainly can identify with much of it. For me, however, it’s a lot more complex than just these emotions. I find I don’t recognise the world today. Looking around, on the surface, it seems that not much has changed.
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Contemporary challenges in responding to domestic violence
The complexity of the intersection between mental health, trauma and domestic violence poses significant challenges for health professionals. Increasing recognition of the limitations of mainstream healthcare systems’ response to domestic violence victims underlies the growing demand for trauma and violence-informed care.
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