Mental Health Services in Australia 2002-03
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Mental Health Services in Australia 2002-03 describes the characteristics and activity of Australia's mental health services including ambulatory and residential mental health-related care provided by hospitals, community-based services, general practitioners, private psychiatrists and some disability support services. Information on the broad trends in mental health care is presented in an easy-to-use summary. Detailed statistics show the hospital care of patients admitted with a mental health-related diagnosis, the services, beds, staffing and expenditure in psychiatric hospitals and community-based services, and mental health-related medications prescribed by general practitioners and private psychiatrists. A special theme chapter has been included which presents an overview of the available data on the mental health care of people with schizophrenia.
Click to review the media release and report.
AIHW Catalogue No. HSE-35; Available from CanPrint (ph: 1300 889 873); $34.00

SIEC Alert #57, January 2005

Suicide Prevention and the Internet
In the last decade, the Internet has experienced a phenomenal growth as technology costs continue to fall and more and more people have mainstream access to the network. Statistics show that the Internet represents an increasingly important medium, especially among adolescents and young adults who use it as a source of information and communication. A recent
study by Statistics Canada (2001) showed that 90% of 15-19 year old teenagers had used the Internet in 2000, compared to 53% for the overall population. Since the younger age group is characterized by high suicide rates, it would be wise for the suicide prevention community to capitalize on new Internet-based prevention opportunities while anticipating potential new challenges.

A guide for using the Internet for Suicide Prevention is available at http://www.mcsp.org.au/docs/guide_full.pdf

BMJ

This week in the BMJ
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Explaining suicide
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/330/7484/0-g?eaf

Suicide: age and deprivation matter in Scotland
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7484/0?etoc

Suicide: intelligence matters in Sweden
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7484/0-a?etoc

Suicide: nationality matters in Estonia
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7484/0-b?etoc

Suicide Rates Have Decreased With Increased Use of SSRIs, New-Generation Non-SSRIs
Laurie Barclay, MD

Suicide rates have dropped in association with increased use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and new-generation non-SSRIs, according to the results of an analysis of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) national vital statistics study published in the February issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. However, the investigators acknowledge that this type of data cannot demonstrate causal relationships.

Medscape Medical News 2005. © 2005 Medscape

WA Eating Disorders Alliance
invites you to an

Eating Disorders Forum

Guest Speaker: Jan Cullis, Bronte's Mum, Director Bronte Foundation Australia and author of "A Journey Shared"
Panel of Speakers: Representing treatment and supportservices for people with eating disorders and theircarers/families.
Phone-In Results: Hear the concerns and issues of peoplecalling the recent eating disorders
Workgroups: Be involved and tell us what's needed in WA forpeople with eating disorders and their carers/families.

VENUE: Labouchere Road, South Perth
DATE: Tuesday 1st March 2005
TIME: 1.00pm to 4.45pm
COST: FREE
Perth Zoo Function Centre
(however places are limited - so please book quickly)
Refreshments & Afternoon Tea provided - please RSVP by 23/2/05 to Belinda
on 9444 5922 or email: belinda.tan@carerswa.asn.au

Taking Young People Seriously - handbooks

The Office for Youth in partnership with the Youth Affairs Council ofVictoria is pleased to introduce Taking Young People Seriously , a series of three practical handbooks to increase young people's participation in their communities:
- Consulting Young People about their Ideas and Opinions - a handbook for organisations working with young people
- Young People on Boards and Committees - a handbook for organisations working with young people
- Creating Change in your Community - a handbook for young people.
Free hard copies of the handbooks are available by calling InformationVictoria on 1300 366 356 or by downloading a copy of the publications form www.youth.vic.gov.au OR www.yacvic.org.au

Copies of the handbooks have been forwarded to local governments, publiclibraries, secondary schools and youth service providers across Victoria.

AeJAMH, Volume 3, Issue 3 is now online and available at: http://www.auseinet.com/journal/.

The table of contents for this issue is:
- Editorial: On social justice (Graham Martin, Editor in Chief)
- Guest Editorial. Engagement of Indigenous clients in mental health services: What role do cultural differences play? (Tracy Westerman)
- Guest Editorial. Commonality, difference and confusion: Changing constructions of Indigenous mental health (Ernest Hunter)
- Guest Editorial. Moving beyond a ‘Seasonal Work Syndrome’ in mental health: Service responsibilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations (Tom Brideson)
- ‘That’s just the way he is’: Some implications of Aboriginal mental health beliefs (David Vicary and Tracy Westerman)
- Indigenous maps of subjectivity and attacks on linking: Forced separation and its psychiatric sequelae in Australia’s Stolen Generation (Leon Petchkovsky, Craig San Roque, Rachel Napaljarri Jurra and Sally Butler)
- The struggle for systematic ‘adulthood’ for Aboriginal mental health in the mainstream: The Djirruwang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health Program (Tom Brideson and Len Kanowski)
- Australian Aboriginal suicide: The need for an Aboriginal suicidology? (Terri Elliott-Farrelly)

WA Association for Mental Health (WAAMH) in conjunction with the WRAP Team and Ruah Inreach presents…
Community Visions for Recovery

• Find out feedback from the WRAP trials
• Find out about successful Auseinet funding applications:
  Ruah Inreach
  WAAMH
  Participate in a Consultation – “Recovery Alliance - the way forward and

Details?
Date: Tuesday 1 February 2005
Time: 1pm (for a 1.30pm start) – 3.30pm
Venue: Conference Room 7, City West Lotteries House
2 Delhi Street, West Perth, Western Australia

All welcome: Consumers, Carers, Service Providers (NGO, Public, Private) etc.
Light refreshments will be provided.
RSVP by Friday 28 January 2005 to WAAMH on:
Tel: (08) 9420 7277
Fax: (08) 9420 7280
Email: waamh@waamh.org.au

Low intelligence test scores in 18 year old men and risk of suicide: cohort study
Gunnell, D., Magnusson, P K E., Rasmussen, F.

The study sought to examine the association between intelligence test scores in men, measured at age 18, and subsequent suicide. During the study 2811 suicides occurred during follow up. The risk of suicide was two to three times higher in those with lowest compared with the highest test scores. The strongest associations were seen with the logic test: for each unit increase in test score the risk of suicide decreased by 12% (95% confidence interval 10% to 14%). Associations were only slightly attenuated when we controlled for parents' socioeconomic position. Greatest risks were seen among poorly performing offspring of well educated parents.

The study concluded that performance in intelligence tests is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men. This may be due to the importance of cognitive ability in either the aetiology of serious mental disorder or an individual's capacity to solve problems while going through an acute life crisis or suffering from mental illness.

BMJ 2005;330:167 (22 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.38310.473565.8F (published 22 December 2004)

Memetics and Social Contagion: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Following a thematic overview of social contagion research, this paper examines the question of whether this established field of social science and the nascent discipline of memetics can be usefully understood as two sides of the same coin. It is suggested that social contagion research, currently lacking a conceptual framework or organising principle, may be characterised as a body of evidence without theory. Conversely, it is suggested that memetics, now over two decades old but yet to be operationalised, may be characterised as a body of theory without evidence. The article concludes by proposing a memetic theory of social contagion, arguing that social contagion research and memetics are indeed two sides of the same social epidemiological coin, and ends with a call for their synthesis into a comprehensive body of theoretically informed research.


Marsden, P. (1998). Memetics and Social Contagion: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission,2.

THE EVOLUTION OF DEPRESSION: DOES IT HAVE A ROLE?
(All In The Mind:15/01/2005)

Major and minor depression, even post partum depression - could they serve an important evolutionary function? Is depression a biological pathology or an adaptation, critical to our reproductive success and survival as aspecies? Natasha Mitchell is joined by two evolutionary biologists who argue that our capacity to be depressed has evolved over millennia to help us cope with difficult social circumstances.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1261369.htm

Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression

Members of ethnic minority groups are less likely than white middle class people to seek professional treatment for depression and other mental health problems. One explanation is that the former conceptualize depressive symptoms as social problems or emotional reactions to situations, while the latter are more apt to view depression as a disease requiring professional treatment. Though considerable evidence supports this hypothesis, it is rarely explored directly through cross-cultural comparisons. The present study compares conceptual models of depressive symptoms in two diverse cultural groups in New York City (USA): 36 South Asian (SA) immigrants and 37 European Americans (EA) were presented with a vignette describing depressive symptoms and participated in a semi-structured interview designed to elicit representational models of the symptoms.


Karasz, A. 2005. Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression. Social Science & Medicine Volume 60, Issue 7 , Pages 1625-1635

Social and familial risk factors in suicidal behavior.
Maris RW.
The focus of this article is on the presence or absence of external and constraining social facts, as reflected in indicators like divorce rate, marital status, the number of close friends, loss of crucial significant others, or sometimes having no one who cares if the person lives or dies, feelings of shame or intolerable guilt, the belief of sacrificing one's life for a higher cause or another person, and military suicide. This article reviews the history of the sociology of suicide, social isolation, contagion, imitation, suicide clusters, stress, and negative life events.

Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1997 Sep;20(3):519-50.

CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY
Changeability, confidence, common sense and corroboration: comprehensive suicide risk assessment

Mental health clinicians can be guided by a framework in suicide risk assessment and documentation. The assessment of suicide risk can generate a suicide risk rating for which minimum standards of care can be mandated.

Nick O'Connor , Monica Warby, Beverley Raphael and Tony Vassallo. (2004). Changeability, confidence, common sense and corroboration: comprehensive suicide risk assessment. Australasian Psychiatry.
Volume 12 Issue 4 Page 352

Mental Health Promotion Officer
Directorate: Midwest Murchison region
Org Unit: Population Health
Level: HSU Level 6
Salary: $57,642 - $62,816 per annum
Hours: Full time 76 hours per fortnight
Further Info: Please Contact David Richardson(Manager Primary Health), on:9956 1962
Description: Responsible for planning, coordination, implementation and evaluation of mental health promotion and illness prevention programs
Closing Date: Friday, 28 January 2005
Documentation: Download supporting Documents

Coping Personally after the Tsunamis: Fact sheet
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2004/pdf/tsunamis_fs.pdf
What to expect, ways to cope, and help seeking advice.
Issued by NSW Health, January 2005

How Stigma Interferes With Mental Healthcare: An Expert Interview With Patrick W. Corrigan, PsyD

The stigmatization of people with mental illness is widespread in our society. What is stigma? How does it negatively affect patient outcomes and how can it be reduced? Randall F. White, MD, contributing writer at Medscape, interviewed Patrick W. Corrigan, PsyD, about these issues. Dr. Corrigan is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Northwestern University and Executive Director of the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, both in Evanston, Illinois. He and his collaborators work at the forefront of understanding the stigmatization of people with mental illness in our society.

Conference Report
Culture and Mental Health: Highlights of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association
October 14-17, 2004, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The Canadian Psychiatric Association held its 54th Annual Meeting from October 14 to 17, 2004 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The theme of the meeting was culture and mental health. Below are summaries of selected sessions on the mental health of immigrants and cultural considerations for treatment of mental health issues.

Joshua Fogel, PhD
Posted 11/30/2004

The National Report on Health Sector Performance Indicators 2003
Catalogue No. HWI-78, Available from CanPrint (ph: 1300 889 873)

"Australians' health getting better but there is room for improvement"

The National Report on Health Sector Performance Indicators 2003 is designed to help policy makers and others understand trends and patterns in health, and to identify areas for action. It examines 44 indicators of performance across the three tiers of the NHPC's National Health Performance Framework - health status and outcomes, determinants of health and health system performance.

In general, Australians are living healthier as well as living longer, with significantly lower rates of heart disease, stroke and injury compared with a decade ago. However, diabetes, mental illness and psychological distress are all more common.

There are also still substantial health inequalities in Australia. People living in the most disadvantaged areas have avoidable mortality rates 54% higher than those living in the least disadvantaged areas. But the starkest health inequalities are between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians. Infant mortality for indigenous Australians is twice as high and, for older people, their chances of dying from circulatory disease, diabetes and injuries due to accidents, suicide and assault are much higher than for other Australians.

The report looks at determinants of health - those which have protective benefits, such as fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity, and those that are hazardous to health, such as overweight and obesity and tobacco use. For example, in 2001, 46% of Australians were sufficiently active to achieve a health benefit and 16% of adult Australians were obese.

Health system performance information in the report includes indicators of effectiveness (such as childhood immunisation rates), responsiveness (such as waiting times in emergency departments) and safety (such as adverse events in hospitals.)

Canberra, 9 December 2004

Depression affects elderly people's lives more than physical illnesses
BMJ 2004;329:1307 (4 December)
Janice Hopkins Tanne

Severe depression impairs elderly patients' lives more than serious medical illnesses, and treatment of depression "has the potential to improve patients' lives in spite of other medical comorbidities," says a multicentre randomised controlled US study published in the Annals of Family Medicine ( 2004;2: 555-562).