#Australian Doctors Forum

[doctorseekaustralia]

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[unsolicited-opinions]

Many have been talking about the way that much of the the Muslim community in Australia has sought to defend the behavior of two Muslim NSW Health nurses on Bankstown, deflect accountability, and excuse inexcusable ethical failings.

These images (from this article), for example, are all over Twitter:

Haviv Rettig Gur's words echo my own thoughts and fears, but I worry that he and I both may be falling into Islamophobia. Haviv writes:

What if there really is a problem in the Muslim world, a crisis of modernity, of equality and democracy, minorities hounded into nonexistence, systematic oppression of women, rampant antisemitism? And what if this deep crisis is being carried into the West by Muslim diasporas?

I mean...he's asking the same question I'm asking lately, but his phrasing feels awfully similar to Tucker Carlson's "just asking questions," doesn't it? That makes me feel uneasy. I admire Haviv's work. I think he's intellectually honest and genuinely insightful. I don't think he's motivated by bigotry and I don't think he hates Muslims, but this phrasing and framing leaves me feeling uncomfortable.

Hend Amry, a Libyan-American who currently lives in Qatar, responds to Haviv:

just asking questions while I wipe them out

Haviv:

I’m wiping out Islam? That’s your answer? I admire Islam, I first seriously encountered it via medieval Jewish philosophers. I know a bit about the vast diversity it contains. And now, knowing that, reread the tweet and answer the actual point.

Hend Amry:

“What if there really is a problem in the Jewish world, a crisis of modernity, of equality and democracy, minorities hounded into nonexistence, systematic oppression of women, rampant Islamophobia? And what if this deep crisis is being carried into the West by Jewish diasporas?” We know what a Nazi sounds like, changing the subject doesn’t change it.

The false equivalence and Holocaust inversion lost her this argument.

Haviv Rettig Gur:

How dull and racist. Yes, let’s compare Muslims to Jews on this point. The greatest fights among Jews today are about Jewish mistakes and misdeeds. Jewish forums have been intensely debating Gaza for 17 months. How many Muslim forums and institutions have debated Muslim violence? Meanwhile, Jews everywhere are constantly told, often by Muslims, that they must distance themselves from other Jews or be deemed complicit. Jews everywhere have become legitimate targets for harassment on this point. Muslims are not similarly required to fret about the crimes happening within and in the name of their religion. (Many do, but they’re a small minority.) And to ask of them to criticize or distance themselves is deemed racist by the likes of Hend. This started as a comment on those murder-encouraging Australian nurses. What do we think? Did their own community respond as the Australian Jewish community would have responded in their shoes?

Haviv has what I think is a legitimate point, but perhaps he has missed the fact that some Muslim groups in Australia did respond with firm condemnation:

From SBS:

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Perth said the nurses' comments "not only violate the sanctity of human life, but also fundamentally contradict the teachings". [Full statement here] Imam Syed Wadood Janud of Perth's Nasir Mosque said the comments were "factually contradictory to what Islam teaches about the afterlife". "Islam teaches respect, compassion, and justice for all humanity, and such vile remarks have no place in our faith," he said in a statement. In the same statement, Ata Ul Hadi, a senior resident doctor at Armadale Health Service, said he was shocked that healthcare professionals could hold "such insensitive ideas about human life". "As a Muslim, I have a deep regard for the struggles, pains, and vulnerabilities of my patients. I strive every day to go above and beyond to ease their suffering," he said. "How anyone in the health sector could see their duty any differently is incomprehensible." The statement reiterated Islam is a religion of "peace, compassion and respect for all humanity", and said the community stands against hatred, bigotry and discrimination. Imam Kamran Tahir of Adelaide's largest mosque, Mahmood Mosque, was also critical. "The comments made by the nurses are completely against the teachings of Islam. Service to mankind is the essence of Islam," he said. "The fundamental qualities that we must all acquire to serve mankind are love for humanity and kindness in our hearts for others." ...

A joint statement by 24 Hazara [Afghan ethnic group] community organisations said the alleged threats against patients were "abhorrent" and that all individuals "deserve compassionate and equitable treatment" from healthcare providers. "These comments are deeply disturbing and fly in the face of everything we stand for as a community," the organisations said in a statement. "We believe in the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, regardless of their ethnicity or religion." The statement also said Hazara organisations were "particularly saddened" to learn that one of the nurses, Ahmad Rashad Nadir, had come to Australia from Afghanistan. It said that individual's comments "do not reflect the values of diaspora communities from Afghanistan." "Our community has always valued inclusivity and understanding," a spokesperson said. "This incident does not represent who we are."

Haviv is correct that if the roles were reversed, the international Jewish community would be nearly monolithic in its fierce condemnation of any Jewish clinicians who threatened patients based on religion, national origin, or ethnicity.

The Muslim world, however, is not monolithic. As Haviv himself wrote: "I admire Islam, I first seriously encountered it via medieval Jewish philosophers. I know a bit about the vast diversity it contains."

Muslim groups which seek to excuse Ahmad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, groups who suggest the international reaction of revulsion to their behavior is inappropriate or driven by Islamophobia should be cordially invited to perform anatomically impossible feats of self-buggery - but that's not who all Australian Muslims are and it seems to me that we'd do well to support and amplify the Muslim voices who so clearly, without reservation, condemn their co-religionists' disgusting behavior.

These Muslim communities should not just be embraced as allies of Australia's Jews, but of all people everywhere who treasure liberal values and secular pluralism.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Bernard Lane

Published: Jul 21, 2023

A rising star of Australia’s centre-right Liberal Party, Claire Chandler, has called for an independent expert inquiry into medicalised gender change for minors.

Senator Chandler suggests a national inquiry into the evidence for treatment of young patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria could be modelled on England’s independent review led by paediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass following controversy over the London-based Tavistock gender clinic.

In an interview with GCN, Senator Chandler said: “We know that in Australia there has been a huge explosion in the number of young children accessing care at gender clinics.

“We don’t necessarily know exactly how all of these children are being treated, whether or not the way they are being treated is beneficial for their circumstances, whether or not it’s having good clinical outcomes.”

The number of minors enrolled in state children’s hospital gender clinics rose from less than 500 in 2016 to more than 2,000 in 2021, with the biggest caseloads in the states of Victoria and Queensland.

In Australia’s federation, the states deliver health while also drawing on federal funding; states pay for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones enjoy federal subsidy.

Chart: Demand surges at Australia’s gender dysphoria clinics in children’s hospitals

[ The green line shows patient enrolments; orange tracks the number of children on puberty blockers; purple indicates the number on cross-sex hormones. Data was obtained under freedom of information law. It is not clear if these figures for hormonal treatment include prescriptions filled outside the hospital. Credit: Dr. Dianna Kenny ]

Europe’s turn to caution

Senator Chandler cited official findings in Finland, Sweden and England that the puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones given by gender clinics internationally are based on very weak evidence and carry risks of harm and troubling uncertainties.

In each country, the recent policy advice is to restrict access to these hormonal treatments for minors, especially puberty blockers, which England’s National Health Service will confine to clinical trials as an experimental intervention.

Senator Chandler has been raising concerns for more than two years about the risks to vulnerable children from invasive medical treatments and the lack of good public data on the operation of gender clinics.

In the last few months, an Australian child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Jillian Spencer has become a rallying point for growing clinical disquiet over the dogmatic “gender-affirming” treatment model and its poorly evidenced hormonal and surgical interventions.

She went public with her criticism of the American-influenced gender-affirming treatment model after she was stood down from her job as a senior staff specialist at a public children’s hospital in Queensland; she was reportedly accused of “transphobia” after an interaction with a young patient from the gender clinic.

Dr. Spencer has argued that the gender-affirming model forces clinicians to go along with the social and medical transition of children despite the evidence base not showing that the benefits outweigh the risks and harms.

“It is incredibly distressing to be forced into harming other people’s children, or otherwise face potential loss of one’s career, livelihood or to be cast out of the workplace, as has happened to me,” she said at a Sydney women’s forum last month.

Earlier this month Dr. Spencer began circulating a petition for health practitioners who want an independent inquiry “to guide Australian doctors in what treatments for children are safe to be delivered, at what age and under what conditions.”

By last night, she had signatures from 36 child psychiatrists, 33 adult psychiatrists, 22 general practitioners and 10 paediatricians straddling all six states, albeit mostly concentrated in the three eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

“Sadly, lots of people have contacted me to say they’re too scared to give their details,” Dr. Spencer said.

In September 2019, after The Australian newspaper began subjecting gender clinics to scrutiny, doctors launched an online petition for a parliamentary inquiry as requested by professor of paediatrics Dr. John Whitehall. They collected 260 names in three and a half days before a spam attack by activists forced closure of the petition. The signatories included 20 professors or associate professors, 14 paediatricians, 20 psychiatrists (nine of them child psychiatrists), and “many other doctors with a shared concern about the epidemic of childhood gender dysphoria and the lack of scientific basis for its current treatment”, organisers said.

Exposure

This week, the medical indemnity fund MDA National, which on July 1 cut back its coverage of private doctors involved in risky medicalised gender change for minors, has noted the renewed push for an inquiry in Australia.

“We understand that there is a growing number of professionals and politicians requesting an urgent review of the research to ensure that children and adolescents presenting with gender dysphoria and incongruence have the very best medical care,” MDA National’s spokeswoman told GCN.

She was responding to a decision by the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) to disaffiliate from MDA National on the grounds that its July 1 policy change would reduce the supply of youth gender medicine. AMSA’s statement claimed that gender-affirming treatment was based on “high-quality evidence” but did not reply when asked for references.

MDA National said it was disappointed at AMSA’s decision—the insurer had spon.sored association events—but stressed that its main duty was to protect its doctor-members from “the risk of potentially high-value claims.”

The spokeswoman said the fund would “continue to monitor the legal landscape of this area of emerging risk and will update our policy coverage to reflect any changes in medico-legal risk as required in the future.”

Litigation by regretful detransitioners has begun in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“[The health professional defendants] lied when they told Prisha she was actually a boy; they lied when they told her that injecting testosterone into her body would solve her numerous, profound mental and psychological health problems; and they lied when they told her about the nature and effects of ‘breast reduction’ surgery, which in actuality was a surgery to remove her healthy breasts and render her incapable of nursing a child (should she even be able to conceive one, which, due to her taking testosterone for years, may not be possible)”—court complaint of 25-year-old detransitioner Prisha Mosley, North Carolina, U.S.,17 July 2023

Evidence rules

This week Australia’s National Association of Practising Psychiatrists (NAPP)—which in 2020 issued a cautious, less medicalised policy on managing youth gender dysphoria��restated its view that a proper inquiry into gender clinics is needed.

“We support an objective national inquiry headed by a panel of experts that allows all sides of the debate to be expressed,” NAPP president Dr. Philip Morris told GCN.

“But the bottom line is that the inquiry must be based on the evidence base, not opinion.”

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, a larger group than the NAPP, is expected to publish its updated position statement on gender dysphoria “later this year”, the president Dr. Elizabeth Moore has told members.

In 2021, the college adopted a more cautious policy, noting the “paucity of quality evidence” on treatment outcomes and acknowledging that “evidence and professional opinion is divided as to whether an affirmative approach should be taken in relation to treatment of transgender children or whether other approaches are more appropriate.”

The policy was denounced as “inappropriate and harmful” by a group of Australian and New Zealand advocates of the gender-affirming way.

From March-September 2019 the college’s LGBT mental health policy had explicitly endorsed the gender-affirming treatment guidelines promoted as “Australian standards of care” by the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, which is home to the country’s most influential gender clinic. Those guidelines have come under intense scrutiny.

Video: Senator Chandler denounces inquiries that went nowhere

In the hunt

After critical coverage of gender clinics began in mid-2019 in The Australian, the then health minister Greg Hunt asked the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) to conduct a review.

In March 2020 the RACP sent Mr. Hunt a four-page letter of advice. It did not describe gender clinic medical treatments, nor discuss their risks; there was no mention of less invasive treatment options.

Instead, the RACP asserted that the national inquiry being sought by some health professionals “would further harm vulnerable patients and their families through increased media and public attention.” No evidence was offered for this claim.

It emerged that the RACP, which trains paediatricians, had previously lobbied for cheaper, quicker access to the medical treatments it was called upon to evaluate for Mr. Hunt. The RACP did not reply when asked at the time if it had a conflict of interest.

Mr. Hunt then gave public assurances that a federal-state body of health officials—the Health Chief Executives Forum—would deliver a new, uniform model of clinical governance across Australia’s gender clinics and a common system for proper data collection. Nothing appears to have come of this.

GCN understands that in response to recent questions from members, the RACP has—

claimed that the Health Chief Executives Forum has not responded to its request for an update on the promised progress towards a national approach to gender clinics acknowledged that its 2020 advice to Mr. Hunt “did not comment on specific clinical issues such as the use of puberty blockers and other treatments” conceded that much has happened in the field of gender dysphoria in Australia and internationally but says it has no plans to update the advice it gave to Mr. Hunt stated that it does not intend to develop clinical guidelines or position statements on the treatment of gender dysphoria

Against this background, Senator Chandler said an expert inquiry independent of government was “clearly required to lay the facts on the table and stop the buck-passing and the culture of silencing that everybody from parents to medical professionals to journalists have experienced and have been targeted with in this debate.”

She said the inquiry would also have to be independent of “the youth gender industry.”

“We can’t be in a situation where the [gender clinic] industry, which has in effect created its own rules, is then put into a position of reviewing those rules,” she said.

“And [the inquiry] must be run in a very transparent and evidence-based way that takes into account some of those international findings that we’ve seen in other jurisdictions [such as Finland, Sweden and England.]”

In the Australian Senate’s next sittings, starting on July 31, there is expected to be a vote on a motion for a committee inquiry into youth gender medicine.

Moved last month by Senator Pauline Hanson of the populist-right One Nation Party, the motion urges inquiry into questions including—

“whether children are being rushed into gender reassignment treatment” “whether psychiatrists such as Dr. Jillian Spencer … who question the use of puberty blockers without an appropriate mental health assessment are being silenced” “whether Australia should follow the United Kingdom and many European countries in adopting a more cautious approach to the prescription of puberty blocking drugs, amid concerns the evidence base for their efficacy is lacking” “whether the Commonwealth should take a greater oversight and regulatory role in the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children following the admission from the federal government that it has no idea how widely the drugs are being prescribed off-label for gender dysphoria”

Asked about this proposal, Senator Chandler said a parliamentary committee inquiry would be better than no inquiry at all, but the numbers in the Senate would not favour an independent inquiry, and in any case, it would be better for an inquiry to be “removed from politics, if possible.”

The ruling centre-left Labor Party (with 26 of the total 76 senators) is seen as uncritically committed to the gender-affirming model, while the Australian Greens, with 11 senators, have lobbied for a taxpayer-funded expansion of these medical treatments.

The Liberal-National opposition, with 31 senators, will have a conscience vote on Ms Hanson’s motion. One Nation has two senators.

Note: GCN sought comment from federal Health Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Emma McBride

--

Australia makes awkward moves in the same direction as the UK and other European countries.

Interesting that the medical side of is being - at least partly - driven by the medical insurance industry; that doctors who subject patients to risky medical experiments will not be professionally protected when the patient comes back and sues. Doctors themselves might be able to deny the results of evidence reviews, but their insurers damn well won't. It's surprising the US, a much more litigious country, hasn't done more of this.

Also notable that you can tell at a glance which institutions have been ideologically compromised. The claim that there is "high-quality evidence" to support self-diagnosis and self-prescription of treatment is an ideological one. But they're never in favor of systematic reviews, for some reason. If what they're doing is so scientifically grounded, you'd think they'd be pushing to resolve this once and for all. They never do.

[ithisatanytime]

to summarize if you know anything about natural selective pressure you would understand that if eating too much after a long period of fasting caused death we would have at the VERY LEAST developed some sort of mild appetite suppression where this would become an issue. im not making the fallacy some do where they think evolution has a mind, but i cannot stress enough how often all animals deal with periods of fasting and starvation, it is one of the most COMMONLY faced biological stressors and causes of death one can imagine, its probably responsible for more death on the whole than predation or disease or those two things combined. to put it simply starvation is not unusual in evolution it is the fucking norm, and i could MAYBE swallow that eating too much after a long period of starvation presented some risks but not easily buti could never swallow the idea that we wouldnt at least develop the adaption of releasing appetite suppressing "im full" hormones before we were actually full in the extremely common event that we are starved and now eating again so we dont accidentally die. the whole idea is insane to anyone who understands biology and just thinks about it, its maddening.

i have seen scattered historical reference to things that MIGHT be "refeeding syndrome" but they come off even more like old wives morality tales when you read them in ancient historical manuscripts than it does now. i have also read the "method of action" with the cells going into glycogen production before circulation of certain nutrients can happen like magnesium and what not, it feels like fucking hooey if im honest but what feels MORE like hooey is reading american doctors discussing MODERN refeeding syndrome in the context of treating anorexia patients. i read around a few medical student forums and everything about the topic is grave and VAGUE, no one gives any numbers even the wiki for refeeding syndrome weirdly includes weasel phrases like people with anorexia MAY be at increased risk for refeeding syndrome, what this tells me is there is no real hard data on the subject to reference and its all as vague as it seems to me.

i tried looking up how many die from refeeding syndrome every year to try and get some hard numbers as many thousands die from starvation every year some of those must have succumbed to you know just doing what comes naturally to a person starving who finds a bunch of fucking food, but they get really tricky with their answer here. basically they gave a hypothetical answer that says this many millions must SURELY die every year from undiagnosed refeeding syndrome because x amount of people die of starvation every year and the syndrome is underdaignosed. so basically what they did is what i was trying to do in a roundabout way where i went if refeeding syndrome is real and so many die from starvation every year a substantial portion of those deaths must have been the result of someone who had been starved over eating right? and they said the same thing to themselves but then therefor y amount of these deaths are likely due to refeeding syndrome existing. thats quite a presupposition in my fucking view.

i want to make it absolutely clear refeeding syndrome doesnt NEED to be fake in order for my world view to align not at all, i could even laugh at the allies and say foolish jew controlled westerners foolishly fed them too richly after starvation due to typhus and allied bomb runs taking out supply lines and infrastructure the nazis never would have made such a mistake. i dont need it, but the topic comes up every now and again, i just watched a documentary on an australian who was lost in the outback for two and a half months on the brink of starvation he was rescued at last but the hospital was careful not to feed him the food he had so desperately craved because of worries of refeeding syndrome and it just absolutely set off my inner skeptic again. i got downright incredulous

[qnewsau]

Call for national inquiry into treatment for trans youth in petition sent to Albanese, Dutton

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/call-for-national-inquiry-into-treatment-for-trans-youth-in-petition-sent-to-albanese-dutton/

Call for national inquiry into treatment for trans youth in petition sent to Albanese, Dutton

Tony Abbott is among more than 100 public figures to sign an open letter demanding the federal government hold an urgent national inquiry into gender treatments for people under 18 years.

The letter calls for a pause on all medical gender transitions for anyone under 18 until an independent Australian inquiry is complete.

The intervention comes as US President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.

Earlier this week, the Queensland state government also announced an immediate “pause” on any new patients under 18 from accessing puberty blockers and hormone treatments in the state’s health system.

Women’s Forum CEO Rachael Wong drafted the letter and said Trump’s order was “excellent” and urged the Australian government to follow its lead.

She said President Trump’s order was “excellent” and urged the Australian government to follow his lead.

Giggle for Girls’ Sall Grover and Liberal Senator Claire Chandler are among the signatories.

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Rachael Wong (@rachaelwongaus)

Just.Equal responds 

In response to the open letter, Just.Equal spokesperson Rodney Croome called on the federal government to “respect the science” and “ignore the prejudice”.

“This is an initiative of an anti-trans activist group, not a medical organisation, and most of the signatories are known opponents of trans inclusion,” he said.

“The fact no reputable medical organisations have signed this statement is because the Australian medical consensus is that gender affirming care is the right approach.

“Allow young trans people and their families and doctors to make important medical decisions free from Government meddling.”

If you need someone to talk to, help is available from QLife on 1800 184 527 or at QLife.org.au.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

beyondblue 1300 22 4636.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Saturday, 20th April

Welcome, 환영 (hwanyeong), benvenuto, hoş geldiniz 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 20th April through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

20th April 2023 🗓️ : Event - SpaceX Starship SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes 4 minutes into flight. "Starship is a two-stage super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX. It is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. Starship's primary objective is to lower launch costs significantly via economies of scale. This is achieved by reusing both rocket stages, increasing payload..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0? by Jenny Hautmann

20th April 2018 🗓️ : Death - Avicii Avicii, Swedish DJ and musician (b. 1989) "Tim Bergling (Swedish: [ˈtɪmː ˈbæ̂rjlɪŋ] ; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii ( ə-VEE-chee, Swedish: [aˈvɪ̌tːɕɪ]), was a Swedish record producer and DJ. At age 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first record deal. He..."

Image licensed under CC BY 3.0? by The Perfect World Foundation

20th April 2014 🗓️ : Death - Neville Wran Neville Wran, Australian politician, 35th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1926) "Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth..."

Image by Parliament of New South Wales

20th April 1973 🗓️ : Birth - Julie Powell Julie Powell, American food writer and memoirist (d. 2022) "Julie Anne Powell (née Foster; April 20, 1973 – October 26, 2022) was an American author known for her 2005 book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen which was based on her blog, the Julie/Julia Project. A film adaptation based on her book called Julie & Julia was released..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0? by

Hesser_Nestle_DiSpirito_Powell.jpg: Jason Lam

derivative work: StAnselm (talk)

20th April 1924 🗓️ : Birth - Leslie Phillips Leslie Phillips, English actor and producer (d. 2022) "Leslie Samuel Phillips (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022) was an English actor. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. He appeared in the Carry On and Doctor in the House film series as well as the long-running..."

Image licensed under CC BY 3.0? by

LesliePhillipsBAFTA07.jpg: Caroline Bonarde Ucci at https://www.flickr.com/photos/caroline_bonarde/

derivative work:

20th April 1818 🗓️ : Event - Court of King's Bench (England) Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free. "The Court of King's Bench, formally known as The Court of the King Before the King Himself, was a court of common law in the English legal system. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century from the curia regis, the King's Bench initially followed the monarch on his travels. The King's Bench..."

Image by Unknown authorUnknown author

20th April 🗓️ : Holiday - Christian feast day: Theotimos "Theotimos (Θεότιμος) is a Greek name, derived from theos, meaning 'god', and timè, meaning 'honour (or honourable) gift'. Its Latinized form is Theotimus. Theotimus is also the title of an ascetical theological work by Francis de Sales, which devotes the first six chapters on the love of God and the..."

[medicannah]

The Legal Framework For Medical Marijuana In Australia: What Doctors Need To Know

In Australia, accessing medical cannabis legally involves a specific process and requires consultation with specialized healthcare professionals known as Authorized Prescribers or Special Access Scheme (SAS) doctors. These doctors have the authority to prescribe medical cannabis products for patients with qualifying medical conditions.

To find a suitable cannabis doctor in Australia, it's recommended to follow these steps:

Consult Your General Practitioner: Start by talking to your regular doctor about your medical condition and the potential benefits of medical cannabis. They can provide you with necessary medical records and may refer you to a specialized cannabis doctor if appropriate.

Specialized Clinics: There are specialized clinics and healthcare facilities in Australia that focus on medical cannabis consultations. These clinics have experienced doctors who are knowledgeable about cannabis-based treatments. Research online or ask for recommendations from local support groups or online communities related to medical cannabis.

Authorized Prescribers: Authorized Prescribers are doctors who have been granted permission by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to prescribe specific cannabis-based products for their patients. You can inquire with the TGA or check their website for a list of authorized prescribers in your area.

SAS Doctors: Some doctors are registered under the Special Access Scheme (SAS) Category B, which allows them to apply for access to unapproved therapeutic goods, including medical cannabis, for their patients. You can inquire with the TGA or consult online directories to find SAS doctors near you.

Patient Support Groups: Joining patient support groups or online forums related to medical cannabis in Australia can provide you with valuable insights and recommendations from people who have gone through similar experiences. They might share information about trustworthy doctors and clinics.

Remember, it's essential to work with licensed and reputable healthcare professionals and to adhere to Australian laws and regulations regarding medical cannabis use. Always consult with a qualified medical practitioner for personalized advice tailored to your specific medical condition.

[alienssstufff]

[ 2019 ] Aaand these are some of the fankids that are related to my fantroll’s universe >:]

GWEN [she/her]= >Daughter of two very busy and absent parents. The house is often left empty leaving her to look after herself (she was taught how to at a very young age) for days on end. >She doesn’t talk much unless necessary and keeps to herself most times, inheriting that ‘Strictly business’ attitude from her parents. >Her strife weapon of choice is an expensive golf bag, an accessory her father brings on events where he’s invited to go golfing with clients for meetings etc. >Erin and Gwen are neighbours. Even before the events of the game, Erin has tried multiple times to befriend Gwen for behind each person theres “A talent, a passion inside of them just waiting to shine!” -Erin

ERIN [he/him + any pronouns by the role he takes]= >The son of the mayor. His mother is a very outgoing, and kind woman who spends most of her time devoted to the community getting to know them and doing all that she can to make everyone’s experiences in [UNNAMED TOWN] a wonderful one.  >Her traits run in the family (well her only son), who she adores very much! She’s very supportive of his interests and was actually the one who pushed forward in establishing the town’s Theatre Club.  >Erin’s a theatre kid - acting and storytelling is his passion and the love for the stage!  >A big team-player and also very good at reading people - he likes meeting people eager to string them along in his elaborate fantastical adventures. He’s practically befriended every kid in town - excused for Gwen >He rarely ever sees her, he watches out for her hoping she’d come outside  and join him on a big adventure >Strife weapon is a wooden sword. The very first stage prop he’s ever made! >HOPE PLAYER

DANI [he/they]= >The twin brother of Aria - and the brains of the operation >Dani and Aria are siblings of a very large family - many of them living in a trailer park near the sea >A quiet kid but is actually the one who suggests all the adventures he and Aria go on - Aria being Aria is more than happy to tag a long >Loves nature - he gets tired easily but enjoys the thrill of the hike it’s his special escape from the commotion of people >Has a current hyperfixation of lands folktales and cryptids - he hopes to come across one one day [his cryptid bias is the mothman] >Dani and Erin met through an online forum about cryptids while Erin was researching them for an upcoming role  >No real strife weapon - has a nature book in his sylladex where a weapon is supposed to be. Also always has a first aid kit, a whole stash of trail mix, and bandages for when Aria gets hurt (which is a lot) 

ARIA [she/him]= >Twin sister of Dani - the stamina of the operation >VERY strong despite the doctors telling that he would grow up frail due to her poor heart >Her vision is also pretty sensitive to the light - she picked up those sunglasses at a surf shop once during a roadtrip and hasnt looked back since >Her eldest brother taught her kickboxing bc she really wanted to - “To protect dani from oncoming bears!!!” she says >There are no bears there. >Talks with a Australian accent bc I think that would be funny - gets it from his mother >Likes living ON THE EDGE!!! HIGH STAKES HIGH REWARDS!!! has had many near death experiences because of this but that won’t stop her from trying everything! >Strife weapon is a pair of boxing gloves, a hand me down from her older brother >HEART PLAYER

[boop-le-snoot]

neurodivergent statistics rabbit hole ramble

So currently I am working on a large document that includes statistics, particularly on SIDS. Out of here curiosity I logged into my country's health statistics database-

I would like to preface this with the fact that in my culture it is acceptable and encouraged to co-sleep with infants, especially if the child is breastfed.

In the year of 2020, we had only 8 (!) SIDS deaths. Which is 13% of all deaths of infants (61) aged 0 days to 1 year.

Most common causes are "other conditions originating in the perinatal period" (57%) which most often means the infant was stillborn or died shortly after birth, closely followed by birth trauma & asphyxia (27%). There were no documented incidents of "unknown cause of death" and 1 death caused by "suffocation" (which was discussed in the press - the father did it whilst intoxicated).

I have two godchildren so mommy forums aren't completely foreign to me. I vividly remember the toxic arguments that surrounded co-sleep, which led me down into the rabbit hole of SIDS statistics for the US where most of these people on the forums come from. The numbers were higher in the US (percentage, as well as I could only find data for 2019, not 2020), not drastically so, and I checked Germany as well, which fell squat in the middle between Latvia and US.

This led me to research further, and I corresponded with a couple of people in healthcare. I asked an Australian friend, a British friend and a NICU nurse from Norway. Anecdotal reports of course, but the common questions I was asked included an inquiry about prescribing drugs that have an effect on sleep & prevalence of excess weight in women of childbearing age.

Obesity is not a common problem in people of childbearing age in Latvia, as well as prescription drugs are moderated and doctors are wary of over-prescribing, esp when it comes to drugs that affect cognition (such as mental illness meds).

Which led me to the current point: could SIDS be an indirect side-effect of things such as excess weight and overprescription of drugs in the cases of SIDS resulting from co-sleep? I sit on this piece of (useless... I think) information, and wonder if any studies have been done to correlate the two?

I have not found any, at all, which seems more than a little strange. Antidepressant sleep is of corpse quality (it's not uncommon to sleep through alarms) and etc.

(⬇️ literally me atm)

Edit/upd: there is one Swedish study that concludes that increased maternal weight also increases risk for SIDS. But nothing on cognition impairing drugs, except for illegal opiates. 😐

[doctorseekaustralia]

https://www.doctorseek.com.au/doctors-discussion-forum-voluntary-assisted-dying-in-australia-an-ongoing-debate/

In recent years, voluntary assisted dying (VAD) has become a significant topic of discussion within the Australian medical community. According to a new report, around 1% of all deaths in Australia result from voluntary assisted dying, highlighting the growing acceptance and implementation of this practice. However, this statistic has sparked debate and discussion among healthcare professionals, policymakers, and the public alike

[hopscotchfriday]

Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space

There was a clear intake of breath from film nerds at the announcement of Stanley’s Lovecraft adaptation. Here was the promise of a serious adaptation of the Providence native’s fiction that would not simply focus on gloopy ooze and cosmic horror (while at the same time serving it up), but be willing to add a critical dimension to Lovecraft’s work.

The rising popularity of the author’s fiction, resting on a bedrock of American bigotry distinct even for the period, is troubling as news of rising racial tensions around the world continues to assault us on our devices, our televisions – the gossip of workplaces. H.P. Lovecraft has found his cultural moment and I almost wish he hadn’t.

Richard Stanley, meanwhile, has spent the last two decades in the wilderness. A South African émigré to the United Kingdom who somehow managed to court controversy even as his interests were strictly marginal – reminiscences featured in the documentary Future Shock!: The Story of 2000AD indicates comic creators still remember his lifting of Steve McManus and Kevin O'Neill's story Shok! (featured in prog 612).

Indeed, Stanley endured a reputation for many years as a promising young director, whose career was marred by this accusation of plagiarism and a disastrous failure in the Australian rain forest.

Fired from the set of The Island of Doctor Moreau, Stanley missed his shot at a Hollywood career. Refusing to simply fade away, the rejected director haunted the Northern Queensland locations in disguise as one of Moreau’s creations. He was even rumoured to have made some black magic workings to curse the production. The film-maker has continued to pursue his interest in the occult with indie documentaries.

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau released in 2014 was the perfect forum for a reappraisal of the troubled director. David Gregory presents Stanley as a bleakly whimsical naïf, crashing on the rocky shores of Hollywood business. Interviews with bemused cast members and crew paint a picture of a visionary incapable of communicating his ideas to the money-men, trusting instead to puckish confrontation.

It did not pan out, with John Frankenheimer being air-dropped in to complete a mediocre adaptation of the H.G. Wells tale.

Gregory also introduces concept art for Stanley’s excessive vision, presenting the experiments of Moreau escaping into the modern world, with hallucinatory chaos ensuing. His fascination with Wells’s themes of man playing god, and colonial contempt for indigenous people, inspired a spectacle of karmic revenge on the streets of London.

Color Out of Space (oh yes, that is what this is supposed to be about) features a similar inversion of the original work’s thematic concerns. The original story features working-class New England farmers, the Gardner family, doomed by a mysterious alien meteorite that contaminants their well and corrupts them physically and mentally. Lovecraft’s thematic nihilism is touched with a degree of class derision for the Gardners, their fate recounted to the reader by an educated visitor from Boston who pieces together the events of the story.

Stanley makes a number of changes that retain the cosmic nihilism and essential beats of The Colour Out of Space (why drop the ‘u’, does it signify his contemporising of the test?), while challenging the privileging of Lovecraft’s classist hauteur. Now the Gardner’s are urbanites-turned hipster land owners, clearly out of their depth in raising alpacas in the New England countryside. Nicolas Cage’s head of the household Nathan mentions cooking the meat of the animals in the following year, which daughter Lavinia (Madeleine Arthur) has to point out is exactly what you don’t do. Alpacas are raised for their wool; it is a waste to eat them.

Here the Gardner’s privilege marks them as alienated from the land. Their lack of experience with farming is underlined by how the household’s finances derive from mother Theresa (Joely Richardson), who works as an online stocks advisor and is frustrated by the poor internet.

As for the Gardner children, Lavinia has embraced magic ritual to affect an escape from the drudgery of her parents’ escape to the countryside. She is also introduced attempting a healing spell on behalf of her mother’s cancer. But of all the Gardners, Lavinia is the character most approximate to the otherworldly force that invades their farm. Son Benny (Brendan Meyer) is stoned, too online, and disaffected, while the youngest child Jack (Julian Hilliard) is overly attached to Theresa.

The stage is set then for Stanley theme of the self-proclaimed wholesome American family being torn apart when encountering something outside their regulated life. Theresa’s cancer is the spectre that haunts the passive aggressive sniping between the children and Nathan’s failures as a father. The cancer is an early corollary for the metastasising corruption of the ‘color’, which arrives via meteor and quickly mutates and assimilates animal and plant life, before enveloping the Gardners themselves.

There is a studied weirdness in the script to the interactions between the Gardners, hinting at the family’s already festering tensions and resentments. A scene of romantic banter between Nathan and Theresa descends into an exchange that emphasises his possessive hold over her as a literal sex object; Lavinia and Benny exchange insults exclusively focused on their respective genitals. In Stanley’s inversion of Lovecraft, it is the family unit that is already a corrupting trap.

The alien intelligence that plagues the Gardners manifests what is already working on the clan and their presumed normality.

Stanley’s other coup is to remove the passive epistolary tone of the story. Instead he introduces hydrologist Ward (Elliot Knight), who at first tries to rescue the family from what he regards as a water-born illness. For his efforts he is then targeted by the alien intelligence at work.

There’s plenty for gorehounds to enjoy here, from twisting masses of flesh, limbs being lopped off and the always reliable – murderous trees – but Stanley has also produced an evenly paced, visually exhilarating meditation on alienation and invasion.  

Color Out of Space is now available On Demand via Telstra, Google Play, iTunes, Fetch TV, Foxtel & Umbrella Entertainment plus DVD & Blu-Ray. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Thousands of sleep apnea sufferers rely on a lone Australian CPAP hacker to stay healthy

An Australian developer named Mark Watkins painstakingly reverse-engineered the proprietary data generated by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines and created Sleepyhead, a free/open piece of software that has become the go-to tool for thousands of sleep apnea sufferers around the world who want to tune their machines to stay healthy.

CPAP machines can require extensive tinkering to deliver exactly the right amount of air to their users; too little air and the patient can become chronically oxygen-deprived, leading to very serious health risks including early mortality. Too much air pressure can also kill you.

CPAP machine manufacturers like Resmed scramble the data generated by the machines and expect patients to physically transport the data on SD cards to their doctors' offices, which doctors use to tune the machines. This process is slow, expensive, and cumbersome, and time-starved docs are unreliable CPAP mechanics (there is a real shortage of sleep specialists).

Enter Mark Watkins and Sleepytime, whose existence is spread by word of mouth on forums for apnea sufferers, and these communities help one another interpret the data generated by the machines and make small adjustments to dial in the right settings.

However, Sleepytime may be illegal. CPAP machines -- like many other medical devices -- use digital rights management (DRM) to restrict access to their internals, which are a mix of copyrighted software and uncopyrightable data. Section 1201 of the DMCA bans bypassing access controls for copyrighted works, for any purpose, on penalty of 5 year prison sentences and $500,000 fines (for a first offense!). Watkins is Australia, but unluckily for him, the US government insisted on similar copyright laws as a condition of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement in 2004.

In 2015, the US Copyright Office granted an exemption to the DMCA that permits bypassing DRM in medical devices, including CPAP systems (the FDA filed comments in the docket saying they didn't oppose the exemption).

But appearances are deceiving. The DMCA is an exceptionally poorly drafted rule: not only does it allow medical device manufacturers to abuse copyright to limit patients' access to their own data, but the exemptions that might act to correct these abuses are extremely limited and don't mean what you might think they mean.

The Copyright Office takes the view that it can only grant "use" exemptions to DMCA 1201, but not "tools" exemptions. That means that if you somehow get ahold of Sleepytime, the Copyright Office generously allows you to use Sleepytime. But the Copyright Office can't make distributing or contributing to Sleepytime legal. By hosting Sleepytime, Github is exposed to both criminal and civil liability, and anyone who contributed bug-fixes to Sleepytime is likewise at risk. Giving a copy of Sleepytime to a friend is an offense, and charging them for it (for example, as part of home nursing services) is a felony.

Sleepytime is a perfect parable of the problems of late-stage capitalism: overworked doctors under commercial pressures contribute to an epidemic of underserved patients with potentially life-threatening conditions; the manufacturers who profit off of those patients spend engineering dollars to ensure that they can't help themselves (and that doctors have to pay for site licenses for their decoding software), and so tens of thousands of people around the world have to rely on the willingness of a single person to risk his freedom and finances to write public-spirited software to jailbreak them out of the manufacturer's walled garden.

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/16/sleepytime-vs-dmca.html

[reallookingfakebills]

Passport to Wealth

Have you ever 'failed' at Network Marketing, or any kind of home business? I admit that I have. I ended up sinking close to $10,000 into Herbalife...about half of that was getting started and buying $4000 worth of products for a 'Supervisor' order...and the rest, my coaches/upline dragooned me into buying into their ridiculously-overpriced advertising coop ($500 buy-in gets you 5 leads, and you were supposed to buy 3 or more of these 'wheel slots'!).

I might have had about $5000 in income come in...but I spent countless hours calling my overpriced leads, calling my downline's overpriced leads, and training my downline, most of whom disappeared because they weren't making any money.

So you need not feel embarrassed in my company, if you have ever been unsuccessful in network marketing.

What Does it Take to Achieve Success With My Internet Business?

The financial fiasco with Herbalife taught me that although there IS a ton of money to be made with internet business, I needed to find the RIGHT business opportunity, and more importantly, the right Mentoring Group within that business to join.

A preliminary Google search revealed the Top-Tier Internet Businesses. Darren Gaudry's Passport to Wealth caught my attention immediately because of the products, which included a comprehensive suite of internet marketing software and resources, and the compensation plan: it is an Australian '2-up' plan, which means each new member you sign up will 'pass up' their first two sales to you, their sponsor. Their third sale, they keep 100% of the $997 profit.

Meanwhile, the two sales they passed up to you? Guess what...they both will pass up their first two sales to you too!! Do you see what I mean, about how you could just make a few sales yourself and still have lots of money flooding in?

Thus I began to do some serious research into Passport to Wealth...I was NOT about to get scammed again. Well, technically I didn't get scammed by Herbalife...it IS an amazing product, but I did feel that my mentors ripped me off by selling me $4500 in 'wheel slots' that cost $500 a piece for a lousy 5 leads, who were little better than flipping through the phone book. Seriously, I had leads who thought they were applying for a job at a doctor's office...

So I searched every work-at-home forum and ranking site that I could find for details about Passport to Wealth. I was looking with a critical eye, for some little piece of negativity that would dissuade me from spending $997 to join.

I didn't find it. Instead, I found some incredible testimonials from real people who had been taught how to Earn Money Online by the Passport Mentors4U team.

I will now share with you the pros and cons of the Passport to Wealth business opportunity. Let's start with the cons.

Passport to Wealth Cons

a) $997 to invest --Although this isn't so much of a barrier now, with the $600-$1200 tax rebates on the way as a result of the Economic Stimulus Plan, in the past this investment requirement could make it difficult for many aspiring entrepreneurs.

b) 2 Sales to Qualify --With Passport to Wealth, you pass-up your first two sales to your sponsor. Although this isn't actually a 'cash' expense, that is still $2000 that you are passing up to get qualified. Of course, if you can get two sales, you can get more...it's not the money itself that has the value, but the skills that you gained in the PROCESS of getting those first two sales.

Passport to Wealth Pros

a) No Phone Calling Required Coming from Herbalife, where the modus operandi is to 'Call your leads 3-4 times per day', it is SUCH a relief that I don't have to talk to people on the phone anymore. You can either have Professional Sales Associates (PSAs) call your prospects for you (for a commission on the sale), or if you join the Passport Mentors4U Team, the leaders call your prospects for you for FREE, as a service to members.

b) You have an automated system which will sort, educate and close your prospects WITHOUT you...you just have to fill your marketing 'funnel' by driving traffic to your website, and the system will have sales dropping out the other end. This works through a Lead Capture page, where prospects leave their details and go on to view the 14-minute Passport to Wealth video presentation, and then receive a series of educational autoresponder emails that also include free gifts and digital products to help your prospect make the decision to start the business.

c) The compensation plan is structured such that once you are qualified, each sale puts $997 in your pocket right away . If your downline is serious and motivated to Earn Money Online, they will succeed and pass up their first two sales to you, for another $2000 of pure profit for you. If your downline are bums and don't do anything or follow the instructions, then you still made $997! This solves the problem of spending countless hours trying to train your downline in the hopes that someday they will make sales and recover your advertising costs that you spent to recruit them!

d) Free Trial You can actually sign up for a free trial with Passport to Wealth and see the back office, access some of the products and software, and kick the tires so you really *know* what you are getting yourself into! Most of the other top-tier Internet Businesses wouldn't even TELL you about the details or the products unless you first paid an application fee! So, there are the pros and cons of the Passport to Wealth business opportunity itself...and although that might SOUND excellent, Real Looking Fake Bills I tell you that it is still not enough. I had learned the hard way from Herbalife that even more important than WHAT business opportunity you join is WHO you join with! It doesn't do you any good to have a powerful automated marketing system that can make sales while you sleep...if you don't know how to get interested prospects to your website! So after diligently researching the business, I began researching the Passport to Wealth mentoring teams with equal diligence. I continued to dig, Google Search, and investigate. I felt that I had learned very little in terms of network marketing from Herbalife, so this time I was going to choose which team I joined. I interviewed three potential sponsors, from the Passport Mentors4U Team and the Passport Gold Team. The Passport Gold Team seemed to have LOTS of help for new people...but only until they made their first two sales. After that, you were removed from the rotator and on your own for marketing. This sounded like the exact OPPOSITE of what I wanted...I didn't want anyone making my first two sales for me and then leaving me, because it was the SKILLS to create the first two sales that I needed, 

Real Looking Fake Bills not the sales themselves! The Mentors4U team, lead by Megan Vaillancourt and Stephanie Sammour, built their business around that exact principle. These two stay-at-home moms make incomes that make my own executive salary from my day job seem like chump-change. The Passport Mentors4U build you a lead capture page free of charge, complete with killer ad copy and integration into an autoresponder that sends out a series of educational emails complete with the occasional free gift to your prospects. These sales letters do the sorting and educating for you, and when the prospect is ready to hear more, the Mentors call them FOR you and close the sale! Since I joined Passport to Wealth 2 weeks ago, under the Mentors4U team, I have learned the fine internet marketing arts of Blogging, Article Marketing, Press Releases, Squidoo, Ezines, Craigslist, and more. I don't want to brag or make silly claims of my income, but to give you an idea, go to Google and type in 'MyInternetBusiness', and click on the 'Groundbreaking News...' ad (right now it is number three on page 1). Imagine...two weeks into this business and my site is already on the FIRST PAGE of Google! I'll leave it to the reader to determine the kind of business that is generating for me now...and the kind of business that could generate for you, too, but only if you join with the RIGHT MENTORING TEAM. So, in summary, Passport to Wealth , and the Mentors4U Team in particular, is definitely NOT a scam, and is in fact an incredible internet business opportunity where you can make $997 per month, or per week, or even per DAY once you get your search engine rankings high enough! To learn more, you may visit the link in the resource box below.

I hope this review has been helpful and informative, and like yourself I am looking forward to a bright future with My Internet Business!

[doctorseekaustralia]

Enhancing Healthcare Conversations: The Role of GP Forums and Discussions in Australia

 In the evolving landscape of healthcare, the accessibility of general practitioners (GPs) and open discussions about health issues are becoming increasingly crucial. Websites like DoctorSeek.com.au aim to simplify this by providing comprehensive information about doctors and fostering forums for meaningful dialogue on health-related topics. This blog explores the significance of such platforms, with a focus on Australia’s GP doctor discussion topics and the role of online spaces where patients can ask doctors their most pressing questions.

Why GP Discussions and Forums Matter

Health discussions are no longer limited to consultations within the four walls of a clinic. The internet has made it possible for patients and doctors to interact, share knowledge, and address health concerns collaboratively. This shift has created an environment where:

Patients Are Empowered: By engaging in GP discussion forums, individuals can learn more about their symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments from a broad spectrum of professionals and fellow patients.

Doctors Can Exchange Ideas: Physicians can use these platforms to share insights, explore emerging medical trends, and improve their approaches to patient care.

Awareness Is Raised About Key Health Topics: Discussions often highlight overlooked areas of health, driving education and preventive measures.

The Importance of Asking the Right Questions

Patients often feel overwhelmed during medical consultations, which can lead to unasked or forgotten questions. According to the insights from the reference article, "Getting ready for a doctor’s appointment: 5 questions to ask," asking the right questions can significantly improve the effectiveness of consultations. These questions ensure clarity, provide direction for next steps, and empower patients to take control of their health.

Some essential questions include:

What are the risks and benefits of this treatment?

Are there simpler or safer alternatives to my current treatment plan?

What happens if I do nothing?

Such a mindset aligns well with the goals of online platforms like DoctorSeek.com.au, where individuals can access a wealth of information and even practice engaging in conversations with their doctors online.

Popular GP Discussion Topics in Australia

Australians face a diverse range of health challenges, influenced by geographic, cultural, and socio-economic factors. The following are some prominent Australia’s GP doctor discussion topics :

1. Chronic Disease Management

Topics often include diabetes, heart disease, and asthma management.

Patients discuss lifestyle changes, medication adherence, and coping strategies.

2. Mental Health Awareness

Forums address common conditions like anxiety, depression, and PTSD, particularly among veterans and first responders.

Discussions highlight therapy options, coping mechanisms, and support groups.

3. Preventative Healthcare

Many conversations revolve around immunisation schedules, cancer screenings, and routine check-ups.

The emphasis is on early detection and education.

4. Paediatric and Adolescent Health

From childhood vaccinations to managing ADHD, these forums provide insights for parents and guardians.

5. Aging and Elderly Care

GPs and caregivers discuss age-related concerns, such as dementia, arthritis, and maintaining independence.

By participating in these discussions, patients and doctors collectively contribute to a more informed healthcare system.

Benefits of Platforms That Facilitate Discussions

Websites like DoctorSeek.com.au not only provide access to doctor profiles but also foster environments for robust discussions. These benefits include:

1. Accessibility and Convenience

Patients can explore information about GPs nearby and initiate health-related discussions from the comfort of their homes.

2. Bridging Knowledge Gaps

Forums often address common misconceptions and provide evidence-based answers to frequently asked questions.

3. Community Building

For patients: Shared experiences create a sense of belonging and reduce feelings of isolation.

For doctors: Collaborative discussions encourage the exchange of best practices.

4. Informed Decision-Making

For patients: Access to diverse perspectives helps in choosing suitable treatment plans.

For doctors: Peer reviews on case studies enhance professional learning.

Challenges in Online GP Discussions

While these platforms have numerous advantages, they also come with challenges:

Quality Control: Ensuring that medical advice on forums is accurate and provided by qualified professionals is vital.

Privacy Concerns: Sharing personal health information online can expose patients to privacy risks if not managed securely.

Overreliance on Online Platforms: Patients may sometimes substitute professional consultations with online advice, which could lead to misdiagnoses.

How to Find a Doctor in My Area

For individuals searching for healthcare professionals, DoctorSeek.com.au provides a streamlined solution. By entering your location and specific needs, you can find a GP or specialist nearby. This is particularly beneficial in rural or remote areas where access to healthcare is limited.

The platform also enables users to explore doctor reviews, check availability, and schedule appointments, making it easier than ever to prioritise health.

Encouraging Meaningful Health Conversations

Asking a doctor questions or engaging in GP forums is a step toward proactive healthcare. Whether it’s understanding a treatment plan or seeking a second opinion, these platforms bridge the gap between patient concerns and expert advice.

Tips for Effective Doctor-Patient Communication:

Prepare your questions before a consultation or forum interaction.

Be open and honest about symptoms, history, and concerns.

Follow up on discussions to ensure continuity of care.

Future Trends in GP Forums and Discussions

The role of technology in healthcare continues to grow, and online GP discussion forums will likely evolve with it. Trends to watch include:

AI-Powered Health Insights: Forums may incorporate AI tools to provide users with tailored answers based on their queries.

Virtual Reality for Training: Healthcare professionals might use VR simulations to enhance collaborative discussions.

Mobile Integration: Apps will further simplify access to GP forums, empowering patients to stay connected on the go.

Conclusion

Online platforms like DoctorSeek.com.au offer a valuable service to Australians by connecting them with GPs and fostering open discussions on health-related topics. From chronic disease management to preventative care, these forums provide an inclusive space for knowledge exchange and support. By prioritising transparency, collaboration, and innovation, such platforms help create a healthier, more informed society.

Syndication URL on Enhancing Healthcare Conversations: The Role of GP Forums and Discussions in Australia

[visaexperts]

Healthcare and Character Requirements for Australia Immigration

While Australia is all about open doors for immigrants from around the world, but for the purpose of Australia Immigration, the country has maintained an excellent benchmark for meeting health and good character standards for every newcomer. Let’s dive further into the details to understand both the requirements to migrate to Australia.

Who is entitled to meet Australia’s health and character requirements?

People who are determined to move Down Under are already aware about meeting the health requirement courtesy of a having an immigration consultant or advice from the immigration forums, and most of these individuals are potential skilled applicants with a PR provision under Subclass 189, Subclass 190, Subclass 489 or certain temporary visa applicants. But however, the requirement for a character certificate applies to all visa aspiring candidates.

What are the Health requirements for Australia immigration?

With world-class healthcare facilities, candidates for Australia immigration enjoy some of the finest Medicare systems in the world. Being a healthy-wealthy nation, the government of Australia has all the reasons in the world to keep the land of kangaroos safe by setting standards for the intake of immigrants who aspire to migrate to Australia.

What the Australian government aims to curb:

Keep the communities of Australia free from public health and safety risks - such as Tuberculosis (TB).

Marginalize expenses on healthcare and community services, including social security benefits and pensions.

Protection against minimal     healthcare and community services for Australian citizens and permanent     residents.

For these reasons, candidates who aspire for Australia immigration are scrutinized to be free from a disease or condition that is:

Considered as a threat to general public health in the Australian community.

Likely to carry significant cost on the Australian government for healthcare and community service.

Involved in the requirement of healthcare and community services that is already in short supply and would limit the access of Australian citizens and permanent residents to those services.

Meeting the health requirements

To know whether or not you meet the criteria for health standards, an applicant is required to undergo health check-up from a state designated panel doctor. Kindly note that each state has a specific requirement for health examination. You can vouch for a waiver, if you’re not meeting the health requirement for your Australia immigration application. And once you reach Australia you may be required to sign a health undertaking on the basis of further tests.

Health insurance

Certain short-term visas require evidence of health insurance till the time of your stay in Australia, which would be required after meeting the health requirements for streamlining the process to migrate To Australia.

Character requirements

To live peacefully in any country, you must be of good character and Australia is no exception. You must meet the following criteria to pass the character test for Australia Immigration:

A sentence with imprisonment for 12 months or more; or

Multiple sentences over the course of time which adds to 12 months or more in prison.

Smuggling;

Human trafficking;

Genocide;

War crime;

Crime against humanity that involves torture or slavery, or a crime that is of international concerns;

Whether or not you have convicted of such an offence.

On the basis of your past and present criminal records you may or may not be seen fit for Australia immigration.

The Australian government would keep an eye on you as you might still be a potential risk while you are in Australia, as you would engage in a:

criminal conduct

harass, molest, intimidate or stalk another person

defame the Australian community

stir up conflict in the Australian community or in a part of it

dangerous activities that might be of threat to the Australian community or a part of it.

Convicted or have been charged for one or more sexual offence involving a child.

You are subject to investigative interrogation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

You’re a suspect to an Interpol notice, which is evident that you directly or indirectly pose threat to the Australian community.

How to prove your character

Almost all candidates who migrate to Australia and are above 16 years are required to provide a police clearance certificate to show that you are of good character and do not pose a threat to the citizens of Australia. One has to prove that they’re clear of any criminal charges in each country, where he/she resided for more than 12 months in the last 10 years prior to lodging their visa application.

Conclusion

Further summarizing the topic, we can say that for seamless Australia Immigration process the Australian government wants to make sure that its doors are open to immigrants who can contribute to a healthy economy of Australia and are of certain caliber to meet these requirements. Thus, a benchmark for health and character requirements is set in place for migrants to meet them.

[errors-head-blog]

(Has this been done yet?)

Welp....however here is my little meme contribution to the shitstrom happening to this little dude on the official overwatch forums...

!!! [ Also Hammond does not ruin the lore, if you are okay with: -a man that dissipates into smoke and reforms with literally infinite shotguns up his sleeve -a time traveling pilot -two ninjas that summon dragons out of thin air, one of which can deflect bullets and literal black holes -a russian woman who can literally create black holes -a talking gorilla who “is always angry” -an australian man who is unharmed by his own bombs -another one that is like 10 feet tall and inhales gas -a robot that can turn gold at any time and then turn normal colors again -a hulking German man that can shoot fire out of his 10 foot tall hammer -a gamer who contols a mech despite little training and can make things disappear with a computer -an environmentalist that summons walls out of the ground -a Swiss doctor that can revive people from the dead because science -a Brazillian DJ who can heal bullet wounds and direct rocket shots with music -a robot that floats in midair -a druid evil scientist woman that shoots balls of magic -little Swedish dwarf who goes ape-s**t and is engulfed in flames but is somehow completely fine -a sniper that heals and damages people at the same time without changing bullets -symmetra’s light constructions -a mexican woman who learned hacking with no training whatsoever, can go invisible with no visible technology that can help her do so, and can hack human beings which does things such as make american men forget how to roll or sprint ] !!!