Writings of interest for the general public 


  • How to sleep – Outback Radio Style  Sunday November 13th, 2022
    
There’s this awesome radio station in Broken Hill called 2DRY FM. They were kind enough to assist us with our health promotion activities. We had a great chat about the ...
  • How to get to sleep  Tuesday November 01st, 2022
    
Drink milk.


Sleep is one of the commonest problems people see their doctor with. One study identified as many as a third of general practitioner attendees had concerns with chronic insomnia. ...
  • Understanding Ageism  Saturday June 18th, 2022
    
(This post includes material recently published in MindCafe.)


Ageism is a worldwide problem. A literature search of ageism and its impact on older persons’ health (Chang E, 2015) included over seven ...
  • Christmas – a time to fear, and a time to act – or is it?  Tuesday January 04th, 2022
    


https://psychscenehub.com/psychinsights/christmas-is-a-time-of-fear-and-a-time-to-act-or-is-it/




  • Recovering from COVID  Saturday October 30th, 2021
    
I discussed with ABC Broken Hill regarding the recent lifting of lockdown restrictions. How does one recover from a pandemic that is still ongoing?












https://www.abc.net.au/radio/brokenhill/listen-back-archive/10585276




  • Old Age Psychiatry – Four Areas That Can Change The World  Thursday July 15th, 2021
    
It’s difficult to get excited about old age psychiatry. Often seen as the “palliative” end of psychiatry, there is a reluctance to see much of a benefit with regards to ...
  • The History of Antidepressants  Thursday March 25th, 2021
    


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPVJ25Ka4k




I had a great time collaborating with TED Education on this video. We discuss the history of the first antidepressants, from iproniazid and imipramine through to fluoxetine. We’ve come a ...
  • Christmas during a pandemic  Tuesday December 22nd, 2020
    
Think about the intangibles this Christmas





We have had more mental health issues this Christmas than before, in a time which is usually renowned for its relative safety. What are we ...
  • Ageing and Mental Health  Wednesday September 02nd, 2020
    
When considering ageing and mental health, it would not be
surprising to regard ageing as a risk factor for mental health in itself.
However, this is a misnomer. Research has consistently demonstrated ...
  • When experts found isolation was a great thing  Friday May 29th, 2020
    
The COVID pandemic has forced many of us into isolation. About 50 years ago, one of the largest sociological experiments of its time found that that may be a good ...
  • Freedom and the Pandemic  Sunday May 24th, 2020
    

Even as we knew America was to fare poorly under the pandemic, expectations have been surpassed. Amidst widespread and rising infections, there is political rebellion at all levels of society, ...
  • How do you tell if someone has an anxiety disorder during a pandemic?  Saturday April 04th, 2020
    
The commonest mental illness is anxiety, afflicting up to 30% of Australians at some point in their lifetime. Roughly a sixth of them have a specific phobia, often a fear ...
  • Book Chapter: Psychodynamic Approaches to Dementia: The Australian Experience.  Wednesday January 22nd, 2020
    
https://www.routledge.com/Psychodynamic-Approaches-to-the-Experience-of-Dementia-Perspectives-from/Evans-Garner-Darnley-Smith/p/book/9780415786652





“This is an essential and unique book which courageously explores the subjective world of dementia. So many find too terrifying to contemplate and yet with this book as a guide, ...
  • Why 65 is old – Blame Politics  Wednesday May 08th, 2019
    
(L-R) Warrant Officer Jennine Riches from Multi National Base Command – Tarin Kot with Prime Minister Tony Abbott on October 28.
DoD photo by Cpl. Mark Doran, Australian Defence Force/Released


This election, ...
  • Innovative treatments for OCD  Wednesday April 03rd, 2019
    


https://2ser.com/new-treatment-for-ocd/




My chat with 2SER regarding a novel study in the UK which altered mechanisms of deep brain stimulation to prodigious results. It is worth noting, as the podcast details, that ...
  • Ageing in Australian Health Systems: A Review  Monday March 11th, 2019
    



Ageism refers to discrimination against older persons. It may not appear apparent that this could, let alone should, happen in healthcare systems, but it regrettably does. This narrative review outlines ...
  • Loving Life in Late Life  Tuesday February 19th, 2019
    
Is it possible to put on a community engagement conference, provided free of charge to the public, involving major speakers from leading stakeholders in the ageing industry, in less than ...
  • Wisdom is not automatic  Tuesday February 19th, 2019
    



A group of smirking teenagers stand in front of an old man. The teens wear red Make America Great hats, which have expanded in their original role beyond merely describing ...
  • Christmas – The Evidence  Thursday December 27th, 2018
    
 
The evidence for all things Christmas and Mental Health related – Holiday blues, Santa Claus, Decorations, and the meaning of life.

  • Embracing the past at Christmas  Thursday December 27th, 2018
    
 
Why do so many Christmas classics deal with transformation of the self?
 
https://www.smh.com.au/national/at-christmas-embrace-your-year-s-failures-it-s-therapeutic-20181217-p50mq0.html

  • The role of the father in Personality Development  Friday July 27th, 2018
    
The role of the father – personality development is most dependent on one’s relationship with your parents, in particular the father.

  • The Challenge of Ageing – What is the Social Solution?  Thursday May 24th, 2018
    
The challenge of ageing – a story of an 85 year old man who put himself up for adoption, six months before he died.

  • Videogames and Mental Health  Friday March 02nd, 2018
    
(This post includes material published in MindCafe.)
 
Videogames and mental health.
 
In psychiatry there are certain cultures that may pass us by, that nevertheless are of significant impact to our profession, and ...
  • Eternity and Mental Health  Tuesday January 16th, 2018
    
How does mental health feel about the secularisation of Christmas?
 
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/where-is-eternity-on-the-streets-of-sydney-20171205-gzyunj.html

  • Psychosis and Video Games  Wednesday August 23rd, 2017
    

What can videogames teach us about psychosis? Why don’t people with schizophrenia take their medications? And how can psychosis possibly be regarded as beneficial?

  • The Carer Appraisal Scale – a new way to communicate.  Tuesday July 18th, 2017
    
 
One of the commonest complaints of mental health services is a perceived failure of communication between caregivers and clinicians regarding those with mental health issues. With this in mind, a ...
  • Elder Abuse – A National Legal Response  Friday June 30th, 2017
    
 
I work in an old age mental health service. We have a patient, a 77 year old woman, who used to live in her family’s backyard in a tent. She ...
  • Euthanasia is not suicide.  Tuesday June 27th, 2017
    





In 2014, Michelle Carter sent numerous text messages urging her boyfriend, then 18, to kill himself. Last week, a Massachusetts court convicted her of involuntary manslaughter. This week, the director ...
  • Grey Expectations  Monday June 05th, 2017
    
My interview regarding the plight of the elderly in Australia.

  • Mentorship – The Meaning of Life For the Elderly  Tuesday May 23rd, 2017
    







I look after the mental health of older adults in the community. Despite common opinion, older adults are usually not more depressed – whilst physical deterioration commonly occurs, one is ...
  • Analysing Trump: Pitfalls and Professionalism  Tuesday February 21st, 2017
    
No political figure has ever mobilised, and frustrated, the mental health profession as much as President Trump.
Prior to Mr Trump’s inauguration, 3 professors of psychiatry called for a ‘neuropsychiatric evaluation’. ...
  • Does the President have Narcissistic Personality Disorder?  Tuesday January 31st, 2017
    
 
Three psychiatry professors called for a formal evaluation. Psychologists and other mental health professionals worldwide are of surprising consistency in their interpretations. We have to ask – does the President ...
  • Breaking free of unhelpful fantasies about ageing  Thursday January 12th, 2017
    
 
“Break Free” is a commercial created by German student Eugen Merher. Intended for Adidas, it shows a gentleman in an aged care facility who becomes obsessed with reliving his glory ...
  • The End – a short story about the apocalypse  Monday December 05th, 2016
    
 
Awarded a commendation by the KSP Writer’s Centre Short Fiction Awards, 2016
 
 
“So, how exactly did Australia save the world?”
 
Bob stopped, the freshly opened homebrew just barely at his lips. “What, ...
  • Reducing Mental Health Stigma  Thursday October 20th, 2016
    
 
My interview with Wendy Harmer on ABC702 regarding Mental Health Month – in 2016, stigma is less than ever. The message is simple – that which we used to think ...
  • We need to keep with the times when it comes to Mental Health Care  Wednesday October 05th, 2016
    
 
At least 6 public awareness campaigns are currently running at the same time for mental health. This is a good thing.
 
 
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/mental-health-care-has-changed-and-our-attitudes-need-to-catch-up-20161005-grvii1.html

  • The Role of the Father  Saturday September 03rd, 2016
    
A famous study on parenting styles had two groups of psychiatrists being shown the same video clip. In the clip, a man is seen seated reading a newspaper, whilst his ...
  • So you have Alzheimer’s…  Saturday June 18th, 2016
    
Hi, I understand you have Alzheimer’s. It’s important first of all that you let someone know that you’re reading this; because in about 30 seconds you will forget it. It ...
  • Personality disorders – the ignored mental health epidemic  Saturday June 18th, 2016
    
 
Pancreatic cancer is well known as the cancer with the lowest profile. A poorly understood and minimally researched disease, its dismal prognosis has an aura of untreatability that is instilled ...
  • “Is it better to not exist?”  Thursday May 12th, 2016
    
A new update in the Journal of Applied Psychology provides a rebuttal against the soundness of a theory that supports abortion. In doing so, it provides an interesting framework as ...
  • Nursing homes can be the best place to grow old  Sunday March 27th, 2016
    
They get a bad wrap, but nursing homes are a better option than only having walls to talk to. 
– Sydney Morning Herald, March 2016
 
– 2UE Radio spot, 28th March ...
  • An Easter Message  Thursday March 24th, 2016
    

The Easter bunny’s origin has been thought to be related to an ancient motif of three hares found in sacred sites throughout Europe and the Middle East. Thought to be ...
  • The Dark Side of Batman  Tuesday January 26th, 2016
    
 
In the trailer for the upcoming Suicide Squad, the newest blockbuster comic book movie, Margot Robbie (playing supervillain and former psychiatrist Harley Quinn) announces to a crowd of apprehensive prison ...
  • Videogames – friend or foe?  Tuesday January 12th, 2016
    
Psychiatry has had an unusual relationship with videogames – and despite several hundred studies on the topic, it is still not clear how and to what extent they influence the ...
  • The Santa Clause in Mental Health  Friday December 18th, 2015
    
What does mental health literature have to say about talking to kids about Santa Claus?
 
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/lying-to-the-kids-about-santa-claus-a-psychiatrists-view-20151217-glpn0z.html

  • Euthanasia – the problem of capacity  Saturday November 28th, 2015
    
I once had a 70 year old patient with recurrent serious depressive episodes leading to suicide attempts. She was a “professional suicider”, in that she subscribed to an organisation that ...
  • The Psychiatric Benefits of Halloween  Friday October 30th, 2015
    
What possible reason is there to encourage kids to pretend to be witches and goblins and have them scare each other for one night a year? Naturally, for psychiatric reasons.

  • Mental Health Resources  Saturday October 10th, 2015
    The Internet is rife with well-intentioned mental health advice, supposed resources, and many, many pitfalls. Much of the difficulty is the reality of psychiatry, in that the lack of objective ...
  • Suicidality can exist without depression  Thursday October 01st, 2015
    
The Chairman of Lifeline Australia, John Brogden, shared an important message recently in the Sydney Morning Herald with “The national emergency we can no longer ignore”. As a suicide attempt ...
  • Gender, Sexuality, and Religion: The End.  Sunday September 20th, 2015
    
It was shortly after the second mission to Mars that society finally ceased.

It was probably 2050, although the date is certainly in dispute, when sexual perversion was finally eradicated. It ...
  • Tony Abbott’s Mental Health Legacy  Thursday September 17th, 2015
    


It is important to be seriously concerned regarding Mr Tony Abbott’s mental health at this stage.
It has been long known that mental health crises have an association with major life ...
  • The Challenge of Ageing  Friday September 04th, 2015
    

On the 21st of July 2015 at a Swiss euthanasia clinic, Gill Pharaoh, a retired palliative care nurse, ended her life. She had been involved in the care of several ...
  • Art in Psychiatry  Sunday May 03rd, 2015
    Kyaga et al’s 2011 study “Creativity and mental disorder: Family study of 300,000 people with severe mental disorder” is one of a long list of studies finding creativity to be ...
  • Asylum seekers and mental health – a resolvable social problem  Tuesday April 14th, 2015
    
It is difficult to maintain a consistent attitude, as a nation, to the issue of asylum-seekers. The extremes of “White Australia” are long gone since its final dissolution in 1973, ...
  • What the Germanwings crash says about mental health.  Monday March 30th, 2015
    I was flying back home whilst reading about the loss of Germanwings flight 4U 9525. The plane I took had on board about as many people who were lost. Speculation ...
  • Why Doctors Commit Suicide  Saturday March 28th, 2015
    
This image – of an overwhelmed emergency physician dealing with the loss of a patient – went viral on the Internet. Trying to explain why leads to important considerations regarding ...
  • The Psychiatrist as Priest  Thursday March 12th, 2015
    
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists recently ran their annual elections for college president. Perusing the biographies of the nominees, one stood out in that they stated ...
  • Black Clouds After the Fires  Tuesday February 24th, 2015
    
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following natural disasters – There has been a remarkable shift in how we respond to it, that has more than a little to do with common sense.
Black ...
  • Post Festive Period is Unrecognised Mental Health Dark Spot  Monday January 19th, 2015
    
Sydney Morning Herald Opinion Piece – did you know that Christmas isn’t statistically the worst time of year for mental health? The weeks after, however, are another matter.
Post Festive Period ...