Poverty and health links
Medical interventions for suicide risk isolating those without mental illness, inquiry hears (SMH, 26 March 2016): perhaps half of the adolescents and adult men who approach Mensline because they are suicidal do not have a mental illness, but are on the autism spectrum and/or have suffered a stressful life event; there's a lack of services for people in those circumstances.
Higher rates of medicine use for mental health problems in remote, disadvantaged areas - ABS study (SMH, 24 March 2016) People in remote areas lack access to psychiatry and psychology; disadvantaged people can't afford them. (A reminder of just how lucky I am. It ain't cheap.)
Now, I tut at the SMH using an emotive term like "ripped" to describe the loss of $57 billion from the federal health budget in 2014. Newspapers, as I am always saying, should not be in the business of telling me how to think or feel. This, however, is not a newspaper, but a mere blog. $57 billion?! Forgive my Easter Saturday blasphemy, but Christ on a bicycle --! Perhaps because of my good luck, I had forgotten just how deeply the current government had assaulted Australians' lives and health. No wonder some public hospitals are simply disintegrating. (The Healthy Kids Check was scrapped last year; the free clinic for the homeless in Sydney will close soon. And there's a plan to make things even worse here by offshoring medical treatment. The links I've accumulated on the impact of the budget on Australians' health just go on and on.)
Meanwhile in rural and remote NSW, the life expectancy is about the same as that in North Korea, with a lack of healthcare resources partly to blame. Disadvantaged areas in Sydney are facing a diabetes epidemic.
Indigenous suicide rate 12th highest in the world (SMH, 10 July 2015)
Two thirds of Indigenous people dying before age 65, AIHW report finds (ABC, 9 June 2015)
Ugh, that's enough for now. I really hope this turns out to be the election issue.
Higher rates of medicine use for mental health problems in remote, disadvantaged areas - ABS study (SMH, 24 March 2016) People in remote areas lack access to psychiatry and psychology; disadvantaged people can't afford them. (A reminder of just how lucky I am. It ain't cheap.)
Now, I tut at the SMH using an emotive term like "ripped" to describe the loss of $57 billion from the federal health budget in 2014. Newspapers, as I am always saying, should not be in the business of telling me how to think or feel. This, however, is not a newspaper, but a mere blog. $57 billion?! Forgive my Easter Saturday blasphemy, but Christ on a bicycle --! Perhaps because of my good luck, I had forgotten just how deeply the current government had assaulted Australians' lives and health. No wonder some public hospitals are simply disintegrating. (The Healthy Kids Check was scrapped last year; the free clinic for the homeless in Sydney will close soon. And there's a plan to make things even worse here by offshoring medical treatment. The links I've accumulated on the impact of the budget on Australians' health just go on and on.)
Meanwhile in rural and remote NSW, the life expectancy is about the same as that in North Korea, with a lack of healthcare resources partly to blame. Disadvantaged areas in Sydney are facing a diabetes epidemic.
Indigenous suicide rate 12th highest in the world (SMH, 10 July 2015)
Two thirds of Indigenous people dying before age 65, AIHW report finds (ABC, 9 June 2015)
Ugh, that's enough for now. I really hope this turns out to be the election issue.