Words of wisdom about mental health from Jon Jureidini on the radio

I so much love the concept of the "unexplanation" in relation to mental illness labels which child psychiatrist Prof. Jon Jureidini has created and used in his talk which was recently broadcast on ABC radio, on the radio show All in the Mind on Radio National 810am. Prof. Jureidini cites depression and most mental health labels as "unexplanations", and I'd certainly agree with him on that point. We should never be satisfied with "unexplanations" from doctors or psychiatrists or psychologists or counsellors. We deserve so much more from highly paid and highly educated professionals who wield a lot of power in our society.

Prof. Jureidini is one of many critics (including myself) of Prof. Patrick McGorry who has had a great level of influence on federal government mental health policy, particularly under the Gillard Government, and this has concerned many people. Many thanks to Natasha Mitchell and the ABC's Radio National for giving airtime in two different radio shows to rational and science-based critics of "big pharma" such as Prof. Jureidini and the multi-award-winning Australian health journalist and author Ray Moynihan.

Juredini, Jon (2011) Sick, Screwed Up or Just Lazy? - 2011 Adelaide Festival of Ideas. All in the Mind. ABC Radio National. 22 October 2011.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2011/3340004.htm

Moynihan, Ray (2011) A noble cause. Background Briefing. October 16th 2011.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2011/3337618.htm

Healthy Skepticism.
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/global

A musical interlude

I love the sound of young people singing!

Refugee Rights Action Network protest at Perth immigration detention centre, June 2011.

Some bad publicity for Australian mental health organization Beyondblue

This petition was started only hours ago at the US-based political website Change.org, but already the petition apparently has nearly two and a half thousand signatures. How naive to expect that Jeff Kennett should behave like a nice fellow just because he is associated with an organization that is supposed to be about mental health advocacy. So much stuff that passes for mental health advocacy in Australia is really about careers and empires and imposing narrow definitions of normality onto the population in general. Professor Ian Hickie was once a Clinical Advisor and CEO of Beyondblue. I don't think much of Prof. Hickie, and I never thought much of Jeff Kennett, who is currently a director of the organization and was an inaugural chairperson.

Jeff Kennett: End discrimination & support mental health for gay and lesbian young people. (petition)
Change.org
http://www.change.org/petitions/jeff-kennett-end-discrimination-support-mental-health-for-gay-and-lesbian-young-people