Health
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Israel massacres children, which the Western Press says is fine
Israel has not only completely disregarded the orders of the International Court of Justice to cease its assault on Rafah as we expected it to do, but has actually ramped up its ruthlessness as though trying to make a point. There were reportedly more than 60 Israeli airstrikes on the southernmost city in the Gaza Continue reading »
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Did a US funded biotechnology experiment ignite the worst pandemic of modern times?
In a momentous development, the US Government has suspended funding from the biotech company increasingly linked to the origins of the Covid pandemic that slew seven million people. Continue reading »
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Changing skills language to help save humanity
Words and phrases used to define, classify, and order our world, combine to tell a good story. That story, told often enough, seems normal. But that story can hide, ignore, and distort, reinforcing unhelpful beliefs and stereotypes. This is what’s happening with stories about skills and occupations. Continue reading »
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Are our policy makers Voltaire’s illegitimate children ?
Aged care and disability services bureaucratic elites seem increasingly to work in ways that are divorced from morality and common sense and removed from the everyday reality experienced by older people and their families. Continue reading »
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The budget that forgot health
Every element of Australia’s health system is in trouble. But you’d never know it from looking at this year’s budget. Continue reading »
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Want to save public hospitals? First, stop being stupid
Under-funding is not the main reason for the crisis in Australia’s public hospitals. A far bigger problem is systemic stupidity. Continue reading »
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Future Gas Strategy is a betrayal of promised Climate and Environmental Policies
Climate scientists reveal data that earth’s heating is accelerating, heat extremes are increasing and 1.5C has been breached faster than forecast. We are failing to treat climate change as the single greatest threat to humanity. Continue reading »
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Being young is getting worse, but we are not sure why, or what it means
Ill health, perhaps especially mental ill health, is generally seen as a personal issue, requiring diagnosis and treatment. But at the population level, mental health problems have a profound message for our societies and their futures. We need to pay it more heed. Continue reading »
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Combating Islamophobia and addressing oral health inequities
Promoting culturally sensitive oral health care for elderly Muslim migrants is vital to address disparities in oral health among cultural and linguistic diverse communities in Australia. Continue reading »
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The food industry can’t be trusted to make the rules
In 1964, the first US Surgeon-General’s report on smoking and health was published. The tobacco industry could veto the proposed members of the committee set up to write it. Today, the idea of giving the tobacco industry power over government processes would cause outrage. Likewise, the idea of big businesses or unions setting tax policy Continue reading »
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The age of eco-anxiety
Back in 1947 the W.H. Auden poem, The Age of Anxiety, was published a year after he renounced his British citizenship for US citizenship. Continue reading »
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Was the Covid-19 pandemic a ‘relatively mild pandemic’?
Recently, a former Prime Minister (who also once served as Health Minister) was quoted as declaring “the Morrison government’s Covid response as a ‘grotesque overreaction’ to a ‘relatively mild pandemic’”. Continue reading »
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As we approach the Federal budget, whatever happened to ‘Measuring What Matters’?
With the federal budget just over three weeks away, researcher Chelsea Hunnisett has some pointed questions for the Albanese Government, including: what happened to plans for a wellbeing economy, and where is your commitment to intergenerational investment for health and wellbeing? Hunnisett is a Laureate PhD Candidate and Government Relations Specialist in the Planetary Health Continue reading »
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NDIS and Aged Care; from rights first to budget first
When she introduced the first NDIS legislation to the House of Representatives in 2012 Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was to replace “A system that metes out support rationed by arbitrary budget allocations, not real human needs”. It was a radical break with other forms of welfare assistance because it put the human rights Continue reading »
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Responding to tragedy
Much has already been said and written about the recent tragic stabbings at Bondi Junction. Daily, we are also exposed to stories about the ravages of war, hopefully neither suppressing nor being overwhelmed by them. As a funeral celebrant, I am familiar with, but never complacent about death and suffering – indeed, it is a Continue reading »
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A new 60-day prescription policy may halve your visits to the GP and pharmacy
The changes will be particularly helpful for women living with conditions including epilepsy, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases and more. Continue reading »
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How many more tragedies? Sydney siders in disbelief as they lay flowers
Our society is failing the seriously mentally ill. Continue reading »
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Aged care funding: On the road to entrenched inequity
UK Health Minister Aneurin Bevan introduced the National Health Service (NHS) pointing out that “Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community.” Continue reading »
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There is no simple fix to residential aged care
Aged care staff are unhappy and many older people in residential aged care are unhappy. Certainly, the NSW Health Minister and the hospitals are unhappy because there are 600 people sitting in acute hospital beds who could be in aged care facilities. Continue reading »
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Environment: Australia publishes its first climate risk assessment
Australia is conducting its first climate risk assessment and developing an adaptation plan. Not only humans experience heat stress, so do other animals and plants. If you must feed wild birds, listen to the experts’ tips. Continue reading »
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Commonwealth-State health reform: It’s time for a conversation about national priorities
The prospects for significant health reform looked good at the end of 2023. A mid-term review of the main Commonwealth-state agreement – the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) – had recommended that the focus of a new agreement, due mid-2025, should be broader than public hospital funding. States seemed to be on board and the Continue reading »
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Managerialism is crushing the human connection: The care economy series
Unpacking the care economy, Dr Robbie Lloyd investigates some of the key issues impacting our communities in a series of articles that explore ageing, disability, mental health reform, the challenges of health policy and reform, drugs and alcohol and domestic family violence. (A repost from 2023). Continue reading »
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On the mystery of Easter, my life goes on
Here I write as a 62-year-old person, formulating the persistent issues of my life by giving my ongoing attention to Friedreich’s Ataxia. I can hardly avoid doing this because it has so shaped my entire life since it’s onset when I was 14 – that means I have had to deal with it for nearly Continue reading »
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Complacency can be deadly
Downplaying the seriousness of the Covid-19 sequelae known as “Long Covid” is a serious mistake. Continue reading »
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Health professions urged to speak up on AUKUS and its threats to health and safety
At first sight there might not seem to be much connection between health and the AUKUS military alliance. But the threats posed by AUKUS to health are multiple and strong, at local, national, regional and global levels. A serious examination of those threats should form an important part of preventive healthcare. Continue reading »
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A war on children: Gaza doctors no longer see normal-sized babies
Israel’s war on Gaza is a war on children, a war on their childhood and a war on their future. Children are dying at an alarming rate from malnutrition and dehydration and doctors are no longer seeing normal-sized babies. Continue reading »
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Aged Care funding taskforce fails to do its task
There is no argument that funding for aged care has to increase or that equitable funding requires that those with higher means pay more. The recommendations of the Aged Care Funding Taskforce fail to provide solutions on both counts, for older people needing care and their carers, providers, taxpayers, or government. Continue reading »
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Environment: Cryptocurrency using as much electricity as Sub-Saharan Africa
Renewables are about to supply the annual increase in electricity usage globally but cryptocurrency’s power demands are surging. Most industrial fishing vessels are untracked, including those around Australia. Climate change has already caused 4 million deaths. Continue reading »
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A life sentence: The impact of wrongful convictions on family and friends
Picture a courtroom scenario, the accused and his family members have eyes on the jury foreman who is about to announce the verdict. The accused knows he is guilty, but is hoping for luck to come his way through the jury’s decision. The foreman speaks: “Guilty”. Continue reading »
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Greater efforts are needed to tackle a “staggering” increase in vaping rates
The Federal Government last week launched a new influencer-led social media campaign to discourage vaping among young people, warning that social media is “awash” with pro-vaping content. Continue reading »