Psych Matters

Intellectual Disability (ID) in children is characterised by significant difficulties in both intellectual functioning (e.​g. understanding and communicating, memory and executive functioning, learning, problem solving) and adaptive behaviour (e.g. activities of daily living and everyday routines and social skills). To help those with ID reach their full potential, early identification and intervention are critical. Since they are ...

Doctors Israel Berger, Vidya Narayan, and Kieran Allen discuss their lived experience of mental illness and how mental illness affects doctors. They address the issues of suicidality amongst healthcare workers, particularly psychiatrists and SIMGs, how to seek help, regulatory concerns, managing confidentiality, and inpatient admissions. They speak about their own experiences of mental illness and seeking support in addition to gen...

Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu. Adorn the bird with feather and they will fly. Dr Hinemoa Elder. Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kurī, Ngāpuhi.

In this episode of Psych Matters, Dr Hinemoa Elder begins with a broad background related to Māori concepts of disability including those of 'Tangata Whaikaha' and 'Whānau Hauā’. The discussion includes Māori levels of need, and mātauranga Māori, Māori knowledge systems about Hin...

Hand-n-Hand (Helping Australian & New Zealand Nurses and Doctors) was founded in March 2020 in far north QLD. Initially a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing emotional burden that came with it, we have been amazed with the speed and enthusiasm with which peer support has been adopted. Today, hundreds of participants and volunteer facilitators have signed up to be a part of the growing peer support movement, from j...

Cognitive impairment is a core feature of mood disorders (depression and bipolar disorder) and is evident across a range of domains (memory, executive function, attention, processing speed). Research shows that cognitive impairment persists into recovery and relates to problems in occupational and psychosocial functioning. International task forces have thus identified cognition as an important treatment target in mood disorders, i...

In this episode, Professor Richard Harvey is in conversation with Professor David Castle (University of Tasmania) and Associate Professor Lynette Averill (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston and Yale School of Medicine) to discuss their perspectives on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in clinical practice.

Professor Richard Harvey has been a consultant psychiatrist since 1998. He trained in the UK and migrated to Austral...

It is well known that rural/regional Australians face greater health and mental health burdens at the same time as lower levels of service access. Dispersed populations and lower levels of research infrastructure are barriers to rural/regionally based academic psychiatrists. Nevertheless, opportunities exist for those willing to follow the dictum "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Dr Andrew Amos, leads ...

While all people may experience the detrimental impacts of loneliness, there are unique health and social impacts of loneliness and social isolation for people with mental health conditions and their families/whānau/carers. They are at higher risk of experiencing loneliness and social isolation and its associated stigma can be a key factor in impeding recovery for people with mental illness. The RANZCP’s Community Collaboration Com...

This episode of Psych Matters explores Psychosocial Rehabilitation within a recovery oriented service system. The esteemed panel includes A/Prof Stephen Parker, A/Prof Frances Dark, Dr Catherine Brasier, and Will McKinlay. Through their discussion they provide us the great opportunity to learn not only clinical perspectives but also from lived experience perspectives about rehabilitation and what role it plays.

A/Prof Ste...

In this episode of Psych Matters, A/Prof Suresh Muthukumaraswamy and Dr Chiranth Bhagavan discuss Suresh's talk 'A sceptical look at the use of psychedelic drugs in medicine'. While there is significant interest in the use of psychedelics as medicines in psychiatry the evidence base has a number of limitations and these are delved into in this discussion.

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This episode is the final episode in a 3-part series on the History of Psychiatry. In this particular episode Dr. Kaplan speaks about the notable names in the movement of Anti-Psychiatry during the 20th Century.

Dr Robert M. Kaplan, MBChB FRANZCP MA MPhil, is a Forensic psychiatrist, lecturer and speaker with positions at the University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University and Wollongong University. His fields of ...

This podcast tracks the 20 years of learning and programme development of a psychiatrist working in primary care, culminating in development, piloting, and evaluation of an “Integrated Primary MH&A programme”.  The programme integrates three new roles (a mental health clinician, a health coach, and access to NGO peer/community support) into primary care teams, seeing people on the day they present, and allowing patients’ holist...

This episode is the second in a series on the History of Psychiatry. In this particular episode Dr. Kaplan explores the development of different drugs, methodology, and diagnoses that were discovered, researched, and applied from World War 1 to the 1980's.

Dr Robert M. Kaplan, MBChB FRANZCP MA MPhil, is a Forensic psychiatrist, lecturer and speaker with positions at the University of New South Wales, Western Sydney Un...

In this Episode Dr Rees Tapsell (Māori fellow) interviews Ms Moe Milne and Mr Ron Baker (Māori cultural elders and advisors for the RANZCP) to get their insights into a range of issues related to Māori mental health.  In addition to being recognised cultural experts both Moe and Ron have nursing training and are deeply ensconced within the Maori world.  They bring decades of experience to bear as they discuss issues from Colonisati...

This podcast is a brief summary of the History of Psychiatry from as early as hunter gatherer societies to the beginning of the first World War.

Dr Robert M. Kaplan, MBChB FRANZCP MA MPhil, is a Forensic psychiatrist, lecturer and speaker with positions at the University of New South Wales, Western Sydney University and Wollongong University. His fields of expertise are sleep and pain disorders, neuropsychiatry and psychol...

This episode of Psych Matters includes 4 child psychiatrists who have or are currently working in regional, rural or remote locations across Australia. Child and adolescent psychiatry is an important subspecialty within psychiatry and the distribution of child psychiatrists in Australia and New Zealand is disproportionately within metropolitan settings. Working in rural and remote settings brings with it unique challenges, beyond j...

In this episode of Psych Matters, Dr Rees Tapsell, a Māori fellow of the RANZCP interviews Dr Rātahi Bell, a senior registrar in forensic specialty training about the specific challenges and opportunities that come with training as a Maori psychiatric registrar in New Zealand.  They discuss the importance of dual competence (being able to walk equally in both the Māori and Psychiatric worlds) in working in New Zealand and the value...

This episode will explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health training experiences and consideration of indigenous values, lifestyles, aspirations, family and differing needs and capacities of Indigenous people in diverse, complex economic and social circumstances. Through the firsthand stories of current trainees on their rural pathways to Fellowship, they share their experience of what are culturally appropriate m...

This episode from the series In Conversation: on the rural pathway to Fellowship explores the holistic nature of care by examining the firsthand stories of trainees and their approach to cases in rural settings. The podcast seeks to explore trainees dealing with cases in rural everyday circumstances and how these cases impacted their training experience.

This podcast series was made possible by funding from the Australian Government...