Psych Matters

Dr Ben Bravery started life as a zoologist, working to save animals from extinction across the globe. Though at 28-years-old, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and confronted with the prospect of his own destruction. Ben’s journey from scientist to cancer patient, and now to psychiatry trainee is documented in his memoir The Patient Doctor. On the topics of compassion, system design, and medical education, Ben speaks with the conviction of someone who has lived on both sides of the doctor patient relationship. In this episode of Psych Matters,  Ben is in conversation with Dr Elizabeth Moore and Dr Ollie Robertson; it is equal parts storytelling and education that appeals to anyone with an interest in life, not simply medicine or psychiatry.

Dr Ben Bravery, originally a zoologist and science communicator, worked for the Australian and Chinese governments before being diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age twenty-eight. After undergoing eighteen months of cancer treatment, Ben decided on a career change. He became a doctor in 2018 and is now undertaking training in psychiatry. Ben volunteers, advocates, writes and speaks about colorectal cancer, living with cancer, cancer in young adults, medicine and medical education, and is committed to advocating for change in Australia's healthcare system. His memoir, called The Patient Doctor, was published in July 2022.

Dr Elizabeth Moore is the Coordinator General of the Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing and the President elect of the RANZCP.

Dr Ollie Robertson is a psychiatry trainee, and host of The Thought Broadcast from Australasian Psychiatry

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

In this episode hosted by the Gender Equity Working Group of the RANZCP, Dr Carol Silberberg and Associate Professor Samantha Loi discuss the challenges involved in balancing leadership roles with family commitments and provide their own experiences and advice about how to tackle these. 

Dr Andrew Amos is a Representative of the RANZCP’s Gender Equity Working Group.

Associate Professor Samantha Loi is a neuropsychiatrist, old age psychiatrist, principal research fellow at the University of Melbourne, mother, stepmother, partner and one of a very small group of women academic-psychiatrists at the RANZCP.  She has a h-index of 20, over 80 publications and has obtained lots of funding for various projects but unfortunately none for her personal use. Her clinical and work interests include dementia, ageing and death.    Associate Professor Loi is a keen advocate for lifting up other women and inspiring them to pursue an academic career and interest in research.

Dr Carol Silberberg left her role in academic psychiatry to focus on conflict resolution and time management after having children. As a fitness junkie, she now stays fit by running after her children and does 10 000 steps a day as Director of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Melbourne, with specialist interests in eating disorders and diabetes. Coupled with her longstanding work with asylum seekers, she has been inspired to develop her leadership skills to be a stronger advocate for these populations. Dr Silberberg is passionate about improving family unfriendly practices and inequities that are widespread in medical workplaces. To unwind, she dabbles as a ceramicist, cellist, cook, and singer. In her spare time, she enjoys catching up on her backlog of emails and missed sleep.

Resources   

Spotify playlist for Should I stay or should I go

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7H4LnJ77f8xOkQmy4pjoyr?si=L5taYhdgTKipIte-QDrcjQ

Dr Silberberg in the Storytellers of STEM podcast 

https://anchor.fm/storytellersofstemm/episodes/120---Carol-Silberberg-Consultation-Liaison-Psychiatry-e10n83p

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

In this episode Associate Professor Jeffrey Looi and his guests discuss topics including the recent pandemic and other related themes which was presented during the Presidential Symposium hosted at the 2022 RANZCP Congress in Sydney.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Looi, MBBS Syd, MD ANU, DMedSc Melb, FRANZCP, AFRACMA, is a clinical academic neuropsychiatrist, in private and public practice, and Head of the Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at the Australian National University Medical School. Jeffrey leads the Australian, United States, Scandinavian-Spanish Imaging Exchange (AUSSIE) and the Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA). He has received multiple research and leadership awards including: a Fulbright Scholarship and Australian-Davos-Connection Future Summit Leadership Award. He is an co-author on more than 230 peer-reviewed papers, involving UCLA, Karolinska Institute and University of Melbourne.

Professor Steve Kisely, Steve is a psychiatrist, addiction and public health physician.  He currently works as a Professor at the University of Queensland and Adjunct Professor in Psychiatry, Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is also Director of Research for Addiction & Mental Health Services, Metro South Health. Steve is the author of over 380 peer-reviewed full-length papers, on physical/psychiatric co-morbidity, psychiatric epidemiology, pharmaco-epidemiology & health services research. He has been a principal investigator on grants worth $20.3 million. Steve does not hesitate in using research evidence to challenge accepted dogma and practice.

Professor Tarun Bastiampillai, MBBS Adl, BMEDSc Adl, FRANZCP is a consultant psychiatrist and Clinical Professor at both Monash and Flinders University. Tarun is also a member of the Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA). He has served in several senior leadership roles, having been appointed SA Department of Health, Executive Director of Mental Health Strategy between 2015 to 2018. He is the recipient of the RANZCP 2020 Margaret Tobin Award for outstanding achievement in administrative psychiatry. He has published his research extensively including within, high-impact journals - JAMA, Lancet and Molecular Psychiatry.

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

Music And Psychology & Social connections (MAPS) is an online group program which combines music therapy via therapeutic songwriting and psychology informed by cognitive behaviour therapy for couples affected by younger-onset dementia.  MAPS aims to improve the mental health and social connections in the spousal carers and in the people with younger-onset dementia, with secondary aims to improve coping skills in the spouses and behaviour changes associated with dementia. 

Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/4/503

Email: [email protected]

Associate Professor Samantha Loi, MBBS, BMedSc, MPsych, FRANZCP, GradCertPOA, PhD. is a neuropsychiatrist and old age psychiatrist, involved in clinical research at Neuropsychiatry, Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University of Melbourne.  An advocate for early career psychiatrists and women in academia, she leads a longitudinal study of people with younger-onset neurocognitive disorders (BeYOND).  She is currently funded by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and is a past recipient of the RANZCP Early Career Psychiatrist award and Catalyst Foundation award and currently leads the MAPS project.

Claire Cadwallader, BSc (Hons), is a PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology) candidate and provisional psychologist from Monash University. She works as a research assistant within the Neuropsychiatry Unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, assisting with biomarker and clinical intervention research in younger-onset dementia. She has assisted with the design, and is the psychologist facilitator for the MAPS project. 

Phoebe Stretton-Smith, MMusThrp, BMus, is a Registered Music Therapist and Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Phoebe has over five years clinical and research experience on various projects involving people living with dementia and their family caregivers, including the NHMRC funded Music Interventions for Dementia and Depression in Elderly care (MIDDEL) controlled trial, and research on group therapeutic songwriting funded by the Dementia Australia Research Foundation (DARF). Phoebe contributed to the design of the MAPS program, and is the music therapist facilitator. 

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

In this podcast, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni speaks on the current social context of women's mental health, and the impact this has in our work as psychiatrists. Professor Kulkarni's podcast focusses on problems with the diagnostic term "Borderline Personality Disorder", as well as the hormone impacts on women's mental health. She speaks about new treatments for premenstrual depression, depression related to hormone contraception and finally the difficult to recognise condition of 'Perimenopausal Depression'. This podcast contains some of the topics that Professor Kulkarni covered in her keynote presentation at the RANZCP College Congress in Sydney in 2022.

Jayashri Kulkarni AM is a Professor of Psychiatry at Monash University & The Alfred Hospital. In 2002, she founded and continues to direct the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) – one Australia’s largest and most innovative centres for clinical mental health research, based at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. Professor Kulkarni is also the Head of the Psychiatry Department for the Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. 

Jayashri is internationally recognised for her expertise in women’s mental health and in May 2022, with her team of researchers she set up and now directs HER Centre Australia – a Monash University Centre for Health, Education and Research into Women’s Mental Health. This is the first Centre to focus on women’s mental health research in Australia and is a collaboration between Monash University, Alfred Health and Cabrini Health.

In September 2021, after 12 months of designing and planning – Professor Kulkarni and her team, launched Australia’s first women’s mental health hospital- based in Cabrini Health.

Professor Kulkarni was the President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health (IAWMH) between 2017-2019. She conducted a multinational study of interpersonal violence and its biopsychosocial and intergenerational impacts on women. Professor Kulkarni has developed many innovative treatments for women with mental illness and is an internationally recognised expert in psychoneuroendocrinology and the neuroscience impacts of early and later life violence against women.

Jayashri graduated from Monash Medical School and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1989. She became a Fellow of the prestigious Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences in 2017 and received an Order of Australia in 2019 for her service to psychiatry.

She is a regular media commentator on mental health related issues and served on many State and Federal Ministerial Boards and Committees, as well as liaising with Industry. Professor Kulkarni has driven policy change in Victoria over many years and is a passionate advocate of lived experience-focused mental health research.

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

In this episode Professor Mal Hopwood and Dr Dhamidhu Eratne discuss The Markers in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Study. The MiND Study is an Australia-wide research study led by Professor Dennis Velakoulis and Dr Eratne in Neuropsychiatry at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The University of Melbourne, aiming to develop a routinely available blood test to diagnose (or rule out) dementia and other illnesses quickly and accurately, and transform the care for all people with symptoms and illnesses of the mind and brain. 
 
Many patients with conditions like younger onset dementia, go through years of multiple assessments and investigations, misdiagnosis, conflicting opinions, uncertainty, and delay. Psychiatrists, other specialists, and general practitioners, frequently face the diagnostic dilemma of distinguishing neurodegenerative/neurological from primary psychiatric causes of symptoms.
 
There is a great need, and much promise, for routine, simple blood tests, which could dramatically improve outcomes, for so many patients, their families, and healthcare systems.

MiND - the markers in neuropsychiatric disorders study: https://themindstudy.org/ 

Dr Dhamidhu Eratne is a neuropsychiatrist at Neuropsychiatry, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and PhD Student and Clinical Research Fellow on the Markers in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Study (The MiND Study), The University of Melbourne. His clinical work mainly involves the assessment, diagnosis and management of younger onset dementia and other severe psychiatric and neurogenetic diseases. Dr Eratne’s PhD is focussed on biomarkers and other markers to reduce diagnostic delay and misdiagnosis, and clinical translation and widely available tests to improve timely and accurate diagnosis, care, and outcomes for patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms. He was awarded the 2021 RANZCP Early Career Psychiatrist Award for his pilot study work, that laid the foundations for significant expansion and broader work of The MiND Study.

Professor Malcolm Hopwood is the Ramsay Health Care Professor of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne; based at the Albert Road Clinic (ARC) in Melbourne, Australia. At the ARC, he is the Director of the Professorial Psychiatry Unit.  He has a long track record of research in areas of interest include psychopharmacology and clinical aspects of mood and anxiety disorders.   He was President of the RANZCP between 2015 and 2017 and is now president of the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations. In 2020/2021 he was an author of the RANZCP Mood Disorder guidelines, the Beyond Blue Depression and Anxiety Guidelines and Psychotropic Guidelines in Australia.  

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

In this episode of Psych Matters Dr Rees Tapsell, from the Arawa canoe of Ngāti Whakaue descent, describes systemic features affecting Maori mental health, including the impact of the RANZCP’s Te Kaunihera committee, imminent changes to the NZ health system which will see a new Maori Health Authority working alongside Health NZ, and the importance of self-determination for First Nation peoples across the world. Dr Andrew Amos hosted the discussion.

Dr Rees Tapsell is of Māori, heralding from the Arawa canoe and of Ngāti Whakaue descent. He is the Executive Director of the Midland Regional Forensic Service and the Director of Clinical Services for the Waikato Mental Health and Addictions services at the Waikato District Health Board. He is a clinical lecturer with the department of psychological medicine at the Auckland School of Medicine. Dr Tapsell has served as a General Council member with the Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, as a board member on two HHSs/DHBs, on several small private companies and he served as a psychiatrist Deputy Member on the Mental Health Review Tribunal for 12 years. He has been involved in the development of a number of Māori specific approaches to the provision of mental health care to Māori in both general and forensic services and in both government and NGO settings. Dr Tapsell’s particular professional and research interests lie in the governance and leadership of health organisations, the epidemiology of mental disorders, Māori mental health service development, outcome measures in Māori mental health ‘mentally abnormal’ offenders and undergraduate and postgraduate education and training.

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

This podcast is a discussion of the performance of the Victorian health system during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with reference to the Australian and International context for health systems and population mental health. Issues related to managing through adversity, adaptation health, wellbeing, workforce and mental health service data collection are also discussed by Professors Vinay Lakra, Tarun Bastiampillai and Jeffrey Looi.

There is forthcoming Australasian Psychiatry paper led by Professor Stephen Allison, together with the podcast presenters and Professor David Copolov that covers the background.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Looi, MBBS Syd, MD ANU, DMedSc Melb, FRANZCP, AFRACMA, is a clinical academic neuropsychiatrist, in private and public practice, and Head of the Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at the Australian National University Medical School. Jeffrey leads the Australian, United States, Scandinavian-Spanish Imaging Exchange (AUSSIE) and the Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA). He has received multiple research and leadership awards including: a Fulbright Scholarship and Australian-Davos-Connection Future Summit Leadership Award. He is an co-author on more than 230 peer-reviewed papers, involving UCLA, Karolinska Institute and University of Melbourne.

Associate Professor Vinay Lakra
Associate Professor Vinay Lakra is the President of the College. He is also a Clinical Director and a member of the Victorian Board of Medical Board of Australia. He completed his medical and psychiatry training in India. He has had extensive involvement in supporting, training and mentoring SIMGs besides developing the assessment standards for SMIGs.

Professor Tarun Bastiampillai, MBBS Adl, BMEDSc Adl, FRANZCP is a consultant psychiatrist and Clinical Professor at both Monash and Flinders University. Tarun is also a member of the Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA). He has served in several senior leadership roles, having been appointed SA Department of Health, Executive Director of Mental Health Strategy between 2015 to 2018. He is the recipient of the RANZCP 2020 Margaret Tobin Award for outstanding achievement in administrative psychiatry. He has published his research extensively including within, high-impact journals - JAMA, Lancet and Molecular Psychiatry.

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

Over the years there has been an increasing awareness of the fact that while the vast majority of individuals with autism spectrum conditions are law abiding, some on the spectrum do commit serious acts of violence. In this podcast we look at the core features of autism, explore differences across the spectrum and review the evidence on the link, if any, between autism and serious violence. We also look at the contribution of the core features of autism to the offending cycle and how the condition might affect the individual’s pathway through the criminal justice system.

Speakers: 

• Dr Andrew Carroll - forensic psychiatrist
• Dr David Thomas - consultant psychiatrist 
• Dr Chad Bennett - psychiatrist 
• Tim Marsh - criminal barrister

Expanded show notes including detailed speaker biographies:
https://www.ranzcp.org/files/podcast/psych-matters-ep-47-autism-and-violent-offending.aspx

Resources:
Ombudsman’s report referred to:
https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/our-impact/investigation-reports/investigation-into-the-imprisonment-of-a-woman-found-unfit-to-stand-trial/

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.

Over the years there has been an increasing awareness of the fact that while the vast majority of individuals with autism spectrum conditions are law abiding, some on the spectrum do commit serious acts of violence. In this podcast we look at the core features of autism, explore differences across the spectrum and review the evidence on the link, if any, between autism and serious violence. We also look at the contribution of the core features of autism to the offending cycle and how the condition might affect the individual’s pathway through the criminal justice system.

Speakers: 

• Dr Andrew Carroll - forensic psychiatrist
• Dr David Thomas - consultant psychiatrist 
• Dr Chad Bennett - psychiatrist 
• Tim Marsh - criminal barrister

Expanded show notes including detailed speaker biographies:
https://www.ranzcp.org/files/podcast/psych-matters-ep-47-autism-and-violent-offending.aspx

Resources:
Ombudsman’s report referred to:
https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/our-impact/investigation-reports/investigation-into-the-imprisonment-of-a-woman-found-unfit-to-stand-trial/

Topic suggestion:
If you have a topic suggestion or would like to participate in a future episode of Psych Matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact us by email at: [email protected]

Disclaimer:
This podcast is provided to you for information purposes only and to provide a broad public understanding of various mental health topics.  The podcast may represent the views of the author and not necessarily the views of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists ('RANZCP'). The podcast is not to be relied upon as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, does not establish a doctor-patient relationship and should not be a substitute for individual clinical judgement.  By accessing The RANZCP's podcasts you also agree to the full terms and conditions of the RANZCP's Website. Expert mental health information and finding a psychiatrist in Australia or New Zealand is available on the RANZCP’s Your Health In Mind Website.