Public and private psychiatry : can they work together and is it worth the effort?

OBJECTIVE: Partnerships in mental health care, particularly between public and private psychiatric services, are being increasingly recognized as important for optimizing patient management and the efficient organization of services. However, public sector mental health services and private psychiatrists do not always work well together and there seem to be a number of barriers to effective collaboration. This study set out to investigate the extent of collaborative 'shared care' arrangements between a public mental health service and private psychiatrists practising nearby. It also examined possible barriers to collaboration and some possible solutions to the identified problems.

METHOD: A questionnaire examining the above factors was sent to all public sector mental health clinicians and all private psychiatrists in the area.

RESULTS: One hundred and five of the 154 (68.2%) public sector clinicians and 103 of the 194 (53.1%) private psychiatrists returned surveys. The main barriers to successful collaboration identified by members of both sectors were: 'Difficulty communicating' endorsed by 71.4% of public clinicians and 72% of private psychiatrists, 'Confusion of roles and responsibilities' endorsed by 62.9% and 66%, respectively, and 'Different treatment approach' by 47.6% and 45.6%, respectively. Over 60% of private psychiatrists identified problems with access to the public system as a barrier to successful shared care arrangements. It also emerged, as hypothesized, that the public and private systems tend to manage different patient populations and that public clinicians in particular are not fully aware of the private psychiatrists' range of expertise. This would result in fewer referrals for shared care across the sectors.

CONCLUSIONS: A number of barriers to public sector clinicians and private psychiatrists collaborating in shared care arrangements were identified. The two groups surveyed identified similar barriers. Some of these can potentially be addressed by changes to service systems. Others require cultural shifts in both sectors. Improved communications including more opportunities for formal and informal meetings between people working in the two sectors would be likely to improve the understanding of the complementary sector's perspective and practice. Further changes would be expected to require careful work between the sectors on training, employment and practice protocols and initiatives, to allow better use of the existing services and resources.

Ecological linkages in the Bonney Upwelling blue whale feeding area

This research has described linkages between the cold-water Bonney Upwelling of south-east Australia, associated primary and secondary biological production, and the presence of feeding blue whales Balaenoptera musculus. This is a previously undescribed, seasonally predictable blue whale feeding area, where whales prey on abundant swarms of krill Nyctiphanes australis.

Some osmoregulatory parameters in selected fishes of the Australasian region

Fish must maintain their internal ionic concentration. This occurs through co-ordination of cellular ion channels and transporters, and hormones acting on and within the cells of the gill, kidney, intestine, and, in some species, unique organs. This study measured some of these transporters and hormones in unusual species of the Australasian region.

Implementation of an innovative teacher education field experience : a study of dissonance

Interactions between participants were concluded to be a critical determinant of the level of implementation of curriculum innovations. The continuation of the traditional school experience emphases on gaining practical classroom teaching and curriculum knowledge was attributed to the congruency between student teacher and school staff perspectives towards teaching and teacher education,

Fire management for biodiversity conservation : key research questions and our capacity to answer them

Knowing how species respond to fire regimes is essential for ecologically sustainable management. This axiom raises two important questions: (1) what knowledge is the most important to develop and (2) to what extent can current research methods deliver that knowledge? We identify three areas of required knowledge: (i) a mechanistic understanding of species’ responses to fire regimes; (ii) knowledge of how the spatial and temporal arrangement of fires influences the biota; and (iii) an understanding of interactions of fire regimes with other processes. We review the capacity of empirical research to address these knowledge gaps, and reveal many limitations. Manipulative experiments are limited by the number and scope of treatments that can be applied, natural experiments are limited by treatment availability and confounding factors, and longitudinal studies are difficult to maintain, particularly due to unplanned disturbance events. Simulation modelling is limited by the quality of the underlying empirical data and by uncertainty in how well model structure represents reality. Due to the constraints on large-scale, long-term research, the potential for management experiments to inform adaptive management is limited. Rather than simply recommending adaptive management, we define a research agenda to maximise the rate of learning in this difficult field. This includes measuring responses at a species level, building capacity to implement natural experiments, undertaking simulation modelling, and judicious application of experimental approaches. Developing ecologically sustainable fire management practices will require sustained research effort and a sophisticated research agenda based on carefully targeting appropriate methods to address critical management questions.

The development of a network for community based obesity prevention : the CO-OPS collaboration

Background: Community-based interventions are a promising approach and an important component of a comprehensive response to obesity. In this paper we describe the Collaboration of COmmunity-based Obesity Prevention Sites (CO-OPS Collaboration) in Australia as an example of a collaborative network to enhance the quality and quantity of obesity prevention action at the community level. The core aims of the CO-OPS Collaboration are to: identify and analyse the lessons learned from a range of community-based initiatives aimed at tackling obesity, and; to identify the elements that make community-based obesity prevention initiatives successful and share the knowledge gained with other communities.
Methods: Key activities of the collaboration to date have included the development of a set of Best Practice Principles and knowledge translation and exchange activities to promote the application (or use) of evidence, evaluation and analysis in practice.
Results: The establishment of the CO-OPS Collaboration is a significant step toward strengthening action in this area, by bringing together research, practice and policy expertise to promote best practice, high quality evaluation and knowledge translation and exchange. Future development of the network should include facilitation of further
evidence generation and translation drawing from process, impact and outcome evaluation of existing communitybased interventions.
Conclusions: The lessons presented in this paper may help other networks like CO-OPS as they emerge around the globe. It is important that networks integrate with each other and share the experience of creating these networks.

Resolving conflicts in fire management using decision theory: asset-protection versus biodiversity conservation

Agencies charged with nature conservation and protecting built-assets from fire face a policy dilemma because management that protects assets can have adverse impacts on biodiversity. Although conservation is often a policy goal, protecting built-assets usually takes precedence in fire management implementation. To make decisions that can better achieve both objectives, existing trade-offs must first be recognized, and then policies implemented to manage multiple objectives explicitly. We briefly review fire management actions that can conflict with biodiversity conservation. Through this review, we find that common management practices might not appreciably reduce the threat to built-assets but could have a large negative impact on biodiversity. We develop a framework based on decision theory that could be applied to minimize these conflicts. Critical to this approach is (1) the identification of the full range of management options and (2) obtaining data for evaluating the effectiveness of those options for achieving asset protection and conservation goals. This information can be used to compare explicitly the effectiveness of different management choices for conserving species and for protecting assets, given budget constraints. The challenge now is to gather data to quantify these trade-offs so that fire policy and practices can be better aligned with multiple objectives

Moral repair with offenders : ethical issues arising From victimization experiences

In this article, the authors examine the relevance of the concept of moral repair for sex offenders who have been victims of sexual or physical abuse. First, they briefly review the literature on victimization rates and effects in sexual offenders. Second, the notion of moral repair and its constituent tasks is examined with particular emphasis given to Margaret Walker's recent analysis of the concept. Third, the concept of moral repair is applied to offenders and its implications and possible constraints discussed. Fourth, the authors outline a normative framework for addressing victimization issues with sexual offenders, drawing on the resources of human rights theory and strength-based treatment approaches. Finally, they conclude with a brief consideration of the ethical and clinical implications of their normative model.

Seasonal winds drive water temperature cycle and migration patterns of Southern Australian giant crab Pseudocarcinus gigas

The giant crab Pseudocarcinus gigas occurs along the continental shelf break of southern Australia. During the summer alongshore winds cause cooler water to upwell onto the shelf, and the crabs move from deeper water onto the shelf where there is more food. The combination of a preferred thermal niche and a depth-stratified food supply defines the favorable foraging environments that enhance the growth of P. gigas. Climate change is expected to cause a southerly shift of the austral subtropical high-pressure belt, and modelers have predicted more upwelling-favorable winds. The associated increase in the circulation of cooler water across the shelf is likely to provide P. gigas with an increased access to benthic food resources and their growth rate may increase in some regions.

Best practice principles for community-based obesity prevention : development, content and application

Best practice in obesity prevention has generally been defined in terms of ‘what’ needs to be done while neglecting ‘how’. A multifaceted definition of best practice, which combines available evidence on what actions to take, with an established process for interpreting this information in a specific community context, provides a more appropriate basis for defining the principles of best practice in community-based obesity prevention. Based on analysis of a range of literature, a preliminary set of principles was drafted and progressively revised through further analyses of published literature and a series of consultations. The framework for best practice principles comprises: community engagement, programme design and planning, evaluation, implementation and sustainability, and governance. Specific principles were formulated within this framework. While many principles were generic, distinctive features of obesity prevention were also covered. The engagement of end-users influenced the design of the formatting of the outputs, which represent three levels of knowledge transfer: detailed evidence summaries, guiding questions for programme planners and a briefer set of questions for simpler communication purposes. The best practice principles provide a valuable mechanism for the translation of existing evidence and experience into the decision-making processes for planning, implementing and evaluating the complex community-based interventions needed for successful obesity prevention.

Raunch culture goes to school? : young women, normative femininities and elite education

Public concern about popular culture’s sexualisation of women and girls is regularly voiced in the Australian media. Young women grow up against a backdrop of ‘raunch culture’ (Levy, 2005), which for some scholars represents a ‘new’ femininity (Gill, 2007), in which ‘hyper-sexual’ forms of (hetero)sexual expression are now expected of young women and girls, despite ostensibly being about choice and personal empowerment. In this article, I explore the constructions of girlhood and femininity amongst young women attending an elite, single-sex, private school in Melbourne, Australia. Elite schooling for girls is often associated with highly classed notions of (hetero)sexual modesty and propriety, epitomised in the reality television program Ladette to Lady. Here I consider how hyper-sexualities are configured within students’ constructions of themselves and others, and I explore their relationship to classed expectations of identity for privileged girls. I examine the role that classed norms of identity play in mediating these girls’ negotiations of hyper-sexualities.

A puzzling migratory detour : are fueling conditions in Alaska driving the movement of juvenile sharp-tailed sandpipers?

Making a detour can be advantageous to a migrating bird if fuel-deposition rates at stopover sites along the detour are considerably higher than at stopover sites along a more direct route. One example of an extensive migratory detour is that of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), of which large numbers of juveniles are found during fall migration in western Alaska. These birds take a detour of 1500-3400 km from the most direct route between their natal range in northeastern Siberia and nonbreeding areas in Australia. We studied the autumnal fueling rates and fuel loads of 357 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers captured in western Alaska. In early September the birds increased in mass at a rate of only 0.5% of lean body mass day^-1. Later in September, the rate of mass increase was about 6% of lean body mass day^-1, among the highest values found among similar-sized shorebirds around the world. Some individuals more than doubled their body mass because of fuel deposition, allowing nonstop flight of between 7100 and 9800 km, presumably including a trans-oceanic flight to the southern hemisphere. Our observations indicated that predator attacks were rare in our study area, adding another potential benefit of the detour. We conclude that the most likely reason for the Alaskan detour is that it allows juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpipers to put on large fuel stores at exceptionally high rates.

Changes in catch rates and length and age at maturity, but not growth, of an estuarine plotosid (cnidoglanis macrocephalus) after heavy fishing

The hypothesis that heavy fishing pressure has led to changes in the biological characteristics of the estuary cobbler (Cnidoglanis macrocephalus) was tested in a large seasonally open estuary in southwestern Australia, where this species completes its life cycle and is the most valuable commercial fish species. Comparisons were made between seasonal data collected for this plotosid (eeltail catfish) in Wilson Inlet during 2005-08 and those recorded with the same fishery-independent sampling regime during 1987-89. These comparisons show that the proportions of larger and older individuals and the catch rates in the more recent period were far lower, i.e., they constituted reductions of 40% for fish ≥430 mm total length, 62% for fish ≥4 years of age, and 80% for catch rate. In addition, total mortality and fishing-induced mortality estimates increased by factors of ~2 and 2.5, respectively. The indications that the abundance and proportion of older C. macrocephalus declined between the two periods are consistent with the perception of long-term commercial fishermen and their shift toward using a smaller maximum gill net mesh to target this species. The sustained heavy fishing pressure on C. macrocephalus between 1987-89 and 2005-08 was accompanied by a marked reduction in length and age at maturity of this species. The shift in probabilistic maturation reaction norms toward smaller fish in 2005-08 and the lack of a conspicuous change in growth between the two periods indicate that the maturity changes were related to fishery-induced evolution rather than to compensatory responses to reduced fish densities.