The NSW Chief Psychiatrist is convening a second NSW Mental Health Medical Workforce and Leadership Forum (Forum) in late September. I wasn’t able to attend the first one, held late last year, and this upcoming Forum is occurring during school holidays when I am away again.

The genesis of the Forum was in part a response by the Chief Psychiatrist to the findings of the 2014 and 2015 AMA (NSW), ASMOF (NSW) and NSW Branch joint surveys of public sector psychiatrists, which identified significant concerns about resourcing, workforce gaps and clinician-manager relations causing low job satisfactio...

As Extremes of Normal Emotions

Charles Darwin wrote in 1876:

If all the individuals of any species were habitually to suffer to an extreme degree, they would neglect to propagate their kind; but we have no reason to believe that this has ever, or at least often occurred. Some other considerations, moreover, lead to the belief that all sentient beings have been formed so as to enjoy, as a general rule, happiness. "Everyone who believes, as I do, that all the corporeal and mental organs (excepting those which are neither advantageous nor disadvantageous to the possessor) of all beings have been...

The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome: Completely Revised and Updated : Advice, Support, Insight, and Inspiration

by Patricia Romanowski Bashe, Barbara L. Kirby, Simon Baron-Cohen, Tony Attwood

Hardcover: 512 pages

Crown; Rev&Updtd edition (March 29, 2005)

ISBN: 1400081521

Teaching Children with Autism to Mind-Read: A Practical Guide by Patricia Howlin, Simon Baron-Cohen, Julie Hadwin

Paperback: 302 pages

John Wiley & Sons (March, 1998)

ISBN: 0471976237

Mindblindness : An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind by Simon Baron-Cohen

Paperback: 200 pages

The MIT Press (February 1, 1997)

ISBN: 02625222...

Welcome to the summer super bumper edition of my column. I promise a sunnier read than you are used to from me, as I’d like to share some great advances we have made this year. We are finally beginning to ‘reap the harvest’ from our persistent efforts to engage in proactive and quality advocacy, networking and submissions to the NSW Mental Health Ministry.

A critical area of determined focus of the Branch over this past year has been to identify gaps undercutting quality and efficient clinical governance, leadership and workforce capacities within the mental health system. We know that there i...