46 Results

Jayashri Kulkarni: Women admitted to psychiatry wards experience high levels of violence and sexual assaults, according to a report released this week by the Victorian Mental Illness Alliance Council. Across the nine different psychiatry hospital wards surveyed in Victoria, 85% of female inpatients felt unsafe during hospitalisation, 67% reported experiencing sexual or other forms of harassment [...]

Olav Nielssen writes:  Just when we thought we were heading for a more tolerant and accepting attitude toward people afflicted by mental illness, a feature and a news article in Saturday’s The Australian quoting leaders in the area of forensic psychiatry have revived the old mental-illness-equals-axe-murderer stigma. One of the articles was based on a recent paper published in the journal Acta Psychiatrica [...]

In the seventh part of The Conversation’s series Health Rationing, Richard Norman and Rosalie Viney explain the controversial system governments use to decide what will and won’t be covered under Australia’s universal health system. They write:  With finite health budgets and the prospect of infinite ways to spend funds, rationing inevitably occurs. But how do policymakers come to decisions [...]

In the sixth part of The Conversation’s series Health Rationing, Mark Mackay examines the latest think tank blueprint to rein in Australia’s rising health costs. But he warns that before funding models are adjusted, governments must make some tough decisions about the type of health care they’re willing to pay for. He writes: In recent weeks, [...]

Hal Swerissen writes: The announcement that opposition leader Tony Abbott will support a 0.5% increase to the Medicare Levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) takes the politics out of about half the additional funding needed for the scheme – for a while, at least. Prime Minister Julia Gillard will introduce legislation to pass the levy through [...]

In the fourth part of The Conversation’s series Health Rationing, Peter Sivey, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics, explains why it might be time to abandon Medicare’s fee-for-service model. He writes:  Teachers aren’t paid a fee for each lesson they teach, nor are police officers paid for each arrest they make. [...]

With health costs rising and costly medical innovations on the horizon, it’s crunch time for health funding. But what are the options to rein in costs, and how can governments make these tough decisions? Stephen Duckett and Cassie McGannon write:  Health spending is eating up more and more of government budgets, both state and federal. [...]

Anthony Scott writes: Any mention of the “R” word in health care immediately brings to mind cuts to services and not being able to access care. It also conjures images of penny-pinching bureaucrats, managers and accountants who have nothing better to do but crack the fiscal whip. Politicians publicly avoid the “R” word if they can; while [...]

Charles Livingstone writes: Institutions that make big money out of gambling – such as governments, casinos, clubs and pubs – are fond of telling us how much they care about problem gambling. Clubs Australia (the peak body for the institutions where most of Australia’s poker machines are located) sees itself as part of the solution – although [...]

Reema Rattan writes: While the federal election is still months away, issues of health funding are already dominating the news. A Grattan Institute report released yesterday, for instance, noted the greatest budgetary pressure facing Australia comes from sustained increases in health costs. Last night, ABC TV’s Q&A featured Health Minister Tanya Plibersek and Shadow Health [...]