Financial and caregivers' stressors in Australian law students - a qualitative analysis.

Australian law students exhibit high levels of psychological distress compared to the general population. In 2013, The University of Sydney Law School conducted a survey to examine the level of distress in students, what factors were associated with their distress and what strategies might mitigate student distress. This article reports on the survey's qualitative findings relating to financial stressors and care-giving responsibilities.

An examination of envy and jealousy in nursing academia.

Aim: To discuss envy and jealousy and how their positive and negative aspects among nurse academics affect the workplace.

Background: In nursing academia, jealousy and envy are common emotions, engendered by demands for high productivity, intense competition for limited resources, preferences for particular assignments and opportunities for promotions. When these feelings are moderate and part of everyday rivalry, competition and ambition benefit the organisation.

Psychiatry and the 'Gay Holocaust' - the lessons of Jill Soloway's Transparent.

Objective: We aim to consider issues relevant to psychiatry raised by the television series, Transparent.

Conclusions: Psychiatry's disturbing history regarding the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community shares many aspects with the group's persecution by the National Socialist regime in Germany. The medicalised 'otherness' conferred on LGBTI patients, latent homophobia and transphobia, and lack of culturally sensitive clinical services for these people represent a major ethical challenge for modern Australasian psychiatry.

Physician perception regarding side-effect profile at the onset of antidepressant treatment: a survey of Israeli psychiatrists and primary care physicians.

Background: One of the major factors affecting treatment compliance and outcome in patients is the wide range of side effects (SEs) associated with antidepressants. In the present study, we aimed to assess the extent to which Israeli primary care (PC) physicians and psychiatrists discuss the SEs of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) with patients prior to the onset of treatment.

Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among PC physicians (N = 123) and psychiatrists (N = 105).

The Contemporary Significance of the Holocaust for Australian Psychiatry.

In this paper we survey briefly the components of the Holocaust directly relevant to the psychiatric profession and identify the main themes of relevance to contemporary psychiatry. The ‘euthanasia’ program; the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) citizens; and the complex relationship between the psychiatric profession and Nazi state are the main themes to emerge from this survey. We then compare this period with key themes in the history of Australian psychiatry and link these themes to some of the contemporary ethical challenges the profession faces.

Unfathomable Journey: The Context of Dr. Otto Walter's Departure from Australia.

Fifty years ago, erstwhile eminent Jewish physician Dr Otto Walter abandoned life in Australia to return to Austria, leaving his crestfallen young grandson, Garry, to wonder why he had gone. In this paper, the author explores the possible reasons for his grandfather's departure, weaving in aspects of Otto's extraordinary life, including the flight from Vienna after Kristallnacht (the German Reich's coordinated night of attacks on Jewish property), and the struggles to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in Europe. Otto was to settle in the British Mandate for Palestine (later Israel), before coming to Australia in 1949 on the Cyrenia—serving as ship's doctor for Jewish refugees.

Ethical use of the media by psychiatrists: towards an antipodean formulation of the "Goldwater Rule".

Objectives: To review the ethical problems posed by the participation of psychiatrists in various forms of lay media and propose a method of resolving quandaries in this area.

Conclusions: We review the potential ethical problems that arise when psychiatrists make contributions to the lay media, particularly when commentary and opinion reflects the views of the individual rather than the profession. The issues raised by the North American injunction known as the "Goldwater Rule" are pertinent to Australasia, particularly when media statements made by psychiatrists may seem to diminish the profession through politicisation, polemic, or bringing the profession and the field into disrepute.

Arrogance in the workplace: implications for mental health nurses.

Cultures of performativity may contribute to organizational and individual arrogance. Workplace organizations have individuals who at various times will display arrogance, which may manifest in behaviours, such as an exaggerated sense of self-importance, dismissiveness of others, condescending behaviors and an impatient manner. Arrogance is not a flattering label and irrespective of the reason or the position of power, in the context of organizational behaviors, may not be useful and may even be detrimental to the work environment.

Editorial: Above all, 'do no harm': Key considerations when including students as research participants in higher education settings.

Abstract  

Attention improves after clinical improvement in acutely depressed adolescents.

In recently depressed adolescents, attention and emotional reactivity improved significantly compared with baseline. Working memory did not improve. This supports the position that, in adolescent depression, attention is state dependent compared with other executive functions that are trait dependent.

Childhood cancer in the cinema: how the celluloid mirror reflects psychosocial care.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the childhood cancer experience in commercially produced, readily available films that include a character with childhood cancer, with a particular focus on psychosocial care.

Methods: We reviewed 29 films, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis, to identify the medical and psychosocial characteristics of the cinematic childhood cancer experience. We rated psychosocial support on a 5-point scale (0 to 4) based on the availability and efficacy of support characters in the categories of nonprofessional internal (eg, parent), nonprofessional external (eg, friend), professional medical (eg, oncologist), and professional psychosocial (eg, social worker) supports.

Primary health care in the mental health workplace: insights from the Australian experience.

In Australia, Primary Health Care and the mental health sector have always shared a philosophy. In 1978, Primary Health Care was first put forward as a strategy to improve "health for all." Recently, the Australian Government included mental health as a national health priority, identifying six strategies consistent with a Primary Health Care approach to address the mental health of all Australians.

A validated questionnaire to assess the knowledge of psychiatric aspects of alcohol use disorder.

Background: To the best of our knowledge, there is no validated instrument for measuring knowledge of psychiatric aspects of alcohol use disorder (AUD) amongst medical students. Our aim was to develop an instrument for this purpose and to describe the instrument's psychometric properties. We also investigated whether the instrument could demonstrate a significant change in scores following an educational intervention consisting of a 60-minute PowerPoint lecture on AUD, associated handouts, and role-plays.

Recovery and the role of humility: insights from a case study analysis.

When the individuals comprising a profession are focused more on competition rather than service to others, and when holding a significant place on the world stage is held in higher esteem than meaningful collaboration with the disempowered, is it possible to be truly consumer-centred? This article considers the notion of humility in the context of recovery and the challenges to the effective implementation of recovery-oriented services that have been identified. Insights are drawn from a case study analysis of the implementation of recovery approaches to health care into a publicly-funded mental health service located in Australia. While challenges to the operationalization of recovery are complex, we argue that the professional quality of humility provides an important means by which genuine and meaningful collaboration can be achieved among health professionals, consumers, carers, and other stakeholders.