Arts, Humanities and Social Science subjects need high-quality, equitably-funded routes to open access publishing. The alternative is a future in which the research produced by these disciplines is expensive and inaccessible.
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Source: Genuine open access to academic books requires collective solutions | Impact of Social Sciences
Paper written with Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity colleagues:
The value of the PAM is about facilitating patient behaviour change and improving health outcomes. Success in achieving these aims also requires a shift in the culture, attitudes and perceptions of clinicians towards person-centred care and concepts such as patient activation and self-management.
Experts have argued that we tend to use our memories of the past to imagine the future, which is why so much future gazing is essentially a form of nostalgia.
Source: Where I call bullshit on the way we do the PhD – The Thesis Whisperer
Some good points from Inger about the need to reimagine the purpose and process of PhDs, and that we should stop preparing HDR students for a world that no longer exists.
The aim of this collection is to ensure immediate access to systematic reviews most directly relevant to remote health care through telehealth. The measures adopted internationally to curb the spread of COVID-19 have led to significant changes in how health care is accessed and provided. As face-to-face consultations between healthcare workers and patients pose a potential risk to both parties, remote care and telehealth offer alternatives.
Special Collection – Coronavirus (COVID-19): remote care through telehealth
Useful for people looking at telehealh interventions, or scaling up telehealth activity for specific conditions.
Well before the impacts of the 2020 pandemic, large numbers of lower income Australian households were struggling to find affordable housing and there were long wait lists for social housing. AHURI research estimated that in 2016, there was a shortfall of around 431,000 social housing dwellings, and that this deficit would grow to 727,300 dwellings by 2036. The research concluded that 36,000 new social housing dwellings per year were required to meet this need.
With high unemployment and increased incidence of homelessness a likely outcome of the economic downturn, new social housing will be essential to ensure housing outcomes do not worsen. Industry and community organisations and peak bodies are calling for a social housing building program as part of the economic stimulus response. For example, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), in a recent report, proposes building 30,000 social housing dwellings as a way to reduce homelessness and to boost employment.
Source: AHURI – Why building housing infrastructure after the pandemic can benefit Australia
The mental health effects of COVID-19 on the general population might be profound and long-lasting, and deserve serious attention; but they cannot be the exclusive focus of conversation. Those who wish to build fairer societies and health systems after the pandemic ends must learn about and prioritise the needs of people living with severe mental illness as a matter of urgency.
An important from David Gunnell and colleagues in Lancet Psychiatry:
These are unprecedented times. The pandemic will cause distress and leave many people vulnerable to mental health problems and suicidal behaviour. Mental health consequences are likely to be present for longer and peak later than the actual pandemic.
Source: Suicide risk and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic – The Lancet Psychiatry
They present a range of potential public health responses, including targeted and universal interventions.
Some worrying parallels between Italy and Australia’s health system challenges, as outlined in this commentary in The Lancet:
There are lessons to be learned from the current COVID-19 pandemic. First, the Italian decentralisation and fragmentation of health services seems to have restricted timely interventions and effectiveness, and stronger national coordination should be in place. Second, health-care systems capacity and financing need to be more flexible to take into account exceptional emergencies. Third, in response to emergencies, solid partnerships between the private and public sector should be institutionalised. Finally, recruitment of human resources must be planned and financed with a long-term vision.
Source: The Italian health system and the COVID-19 challenge – The Lancet
Reminds me of most of the Deeble Institute briefs I’ve read over the past decade.
Estimated increases in daily excess mortality due to daytime temperatures above 30 °C are highest for Sydney and Brisbane under a far future climate (76.8 and 32.5 more deaths, respectively). For Sydney this is largely a result of the population’s sensitivity to high temperatures, whereas for Brisbane it is largely due to the increase in the number of hot days.
The aim is to move, in simple terms, away from the “What is wrong with you?” towards the “What has happened to you?” question… One of the things we wanted to do was to really make very clear the link between personal distress and social context, social inequality, and social injustices. In other words, to put power on the map. Power is not only missing from psychiatric thinking, but it’s also missing from a lot of psychological thinking, and it’s missing from much psychotherapeutic thinking.
Source: The Creation of an Alternative to the DSM: An Interview with Dr. Lucy Johnstone
