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'We need to break down the silo mentality between health, welfare and education. This exists in church agencies as much as elsewhere in society. We must be committed to providing first rate health care to our patients, but also to creating a more equal society.' Text from Frank Brennan's MercyCare Oration.
St Valentine's Day is always painful for frustrated lovers. It reminds them of what they want but have not got, and may never get. We need to cancel St Valentine's Day and find a 'real' saint, one whom we know dealt effectively with the demons that were getting in the way of his or her object of desire.
When we search in distant places for fulfillment and purpose, we can miss the value of the local experience. I recently spent time in Nganmarriyanga, a remote Indigenous community, where I was greeted by a child. 'This is the country of my mother,' she told me.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges the relative moral value of a prostitute showing concern for protecting others by using condoms. But it is far from being sufficient. For him, it is not really the way to promote HIV prevention. One would say: the finality does not justify the means.
Around 2000 Australians die every year from suicide. Dr Diana Sands guides members of her support groups as they metaphorically try on the shoes of a loved one who has suicided, walk in their shoes, and finally take off the shoes and say goodbye.
As I grated the sandpaper across my face, the skin rubbed away but didn't bleed as I expected. Gooey plasma softened the paper's rigid surface. I picked another piece and tried again. Three weeks later I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
Advocacy from the likes of esteemed psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry continues to highlight Australia's mental health system crisis. If Julia Gillard wants to lead on this issue, she will need to further the Coalition's $1.5 billion electoral commitment to mental health services.
Whether grotesquely augmented, stricken with cancer or tumbling unbidden from the frocks of soccer wives, breasts guarantee rapt attention. But never are these appendages more hotly debated than when they are being used according to their very purpose and design. October 2009
Whether grotesquely augmented, stricken with cancer or tumbling unbidden from the frocks of soccer wives, breasts guarantee rapt attention. But never are these appendages more hotly debated than when they are being used according to their very purpose and design.
The first known suicide document is an Egyptian New Kingdom papyrus entitled 'Dialogue of a World-Weary Man with his Ba-Soul'. In 1996 my sister Jacqui killed herself. Three years later our cousin Andrew did the same thing. Suicide has always been part of the human condition.
When discussing racism, the response is as important as the accusation. The slow response from police and political leaders to the recent spate of Indian-bashings demonstrates what can occur when racism is tackled passively.