The travails of women with severe mental illness and pregnancy.

Women with severe mental illness and pregnancy suffer substantial travails in accessing care for mental and perinatal health. Women with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia face higher risks of pregnancy and postnatal complications. Similarly, lack of access to holistic psychiatric care presents particular perils for these women and their children.

Clinical update on public and private psychiatric practice shared-care partnerships - Can the twain work together?

Objective: We explore the previous research and current context regarding opportunities for shared-care partnerships between public and private psychiatric practice.

Conclusions: Since the early 2000s, when there was impetus for the development of public-private psychiatric shared-care models as part of a previous National Mental Health Strategy, there has been surprisingly little research and policy development. Given an apparent exodus of psychiatrists to private practice due to current challenges facing the public health sector, it is timely to reconsider models of private and public sector shared-care that may improve the quality of public mental healthcare.

Private psychiatry in Australia: reflections on career opportunities, benefits, and challenges.

Objective: To provide reflection on career opportunities, benefits and challenges, with regard to commencing private practice psychiatry in Australia.

Conclusions: There are varied opportunities for a career in private practice psychiatry. Private practice has benefits and challenges, distinct from public sector psychiatry; with moderately greater professional autonomy, facilitating the provision of expert mental healthcare for the community.

Through the looking-glass: private and public practice psychiatry in the RANZCP.

Objective: To provide reflections on the representation of and engagement with private practice psychiatrists by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP).

Conclusion: We consider some of the reasons for private psychiatrist disengagement with the RANZCP. We suggest approaches to better engage private psychiatrists in the RANZCP, including: involvement in mental health policy, improved committee representation, specific private practice and business training for Fellowship, broader private practice peer support networks (welfare, clinical research, leadership), tailored professional development, branch-based networks of public and private psychiatrists, and collaboration with specialist medical colleges and the Australian Medical Association.

Diagnosing and managing work-related mental health conditions in general practice: new Australian clinical practice guidelines.

Introduction: In Australia, mental health conditions (MHCs) arising from workplace factors are a leading cause of long term work incapacity and absenteeism. While most patients are treated in general practice, general practitioners report several challenges associated with diagnosing and managing workplace MHCs. This guideline, approved by the National Health and Medical Research Council and endorsed by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, is the first internationally to address the clinical complexities associated with diagnosing and managing work-related MHCs in general practice.

The woman who needed a pet.

A 72-year-old woman developed difficulty reading, driving, and playing dominoes. Ophthalmologic examination revealed a homonymous hemianopia, but brain MRI showed no abnormality to explain the visual field defect. Neuropsychiatric testing demonstrated severely impaired visual processing (simultagnosia, visual agnosia, visuospatial difficulty).