We reflect upon the processes of mental health administration in Australia with reference to George Orwell’s novel, 1984.
Conclusions:
Mental healthcare in Australia is distorted by politicisation, spin and a refusal to acknowledge the reality of the current situation. These challenges for mental healthcare demonstrate some similarities with the Ministries of Truth and Plenty, which conversely performed as their opposites in Orwell’s novel. Psychiatrists and their professional bodies should play a greater role in advocacy for clinician-led, evidence-based services in partnership with our communities.
OrwellG.1984. New York, NY, USA: Signet Classics, 1950.
2.
LooiJCLMaguireP. Surviving the heart of darkness: reflections on the experience of psychiatrists working in public mental health services in Australia. Australas Psychiatry2019; 27: 634–636.
3.
O’ConnorNClarkS.Beware bandwagons! The bandwagon phenomenon in medicine, psychiatry and management. Australas Psychiatry2019; 27: 603–606.
4.
BastiampillaiTAllisonSLooiJCL, et al. Why are Australia’s suicide rates returning to the hundred-year average, despite suicide prevention initiatives? Reframing the problem from the perspective of Durkheim. Aust N Z J Psychiatry2020; 54: 12–14.
5.
LooiJCAllisonSBastiampillaiT.Leviathans: headspace-like behemoths swallow resources. Aust N Z J Psychiatry2019; 53: 1050–1051.
6.
BlomJDSminkFRKwidamaEV, et al. [Red tape in psychiatry: on bureaucracy, bureaucratism, and our secret fondness for procedures]. Tijdschr Psychiatr2016; 58: 520–528.
7.
SmithJWalsheKHunterDJ.The “redisorganisation” of the NHS. BMJ2001; 323: 1262–1263.
8.
LooiJCLKiselyS. Potemkin redux: the re-disorganisation of public mental health services in Australia. Australas Psychiatry2019; 27: 607–610.
9.
BoyceP.Restoring wisdom to the practice of psychiatry. Australas Psychiatry2006; 14: 3–7.
LooiJCKiselySR.So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past - Continued inaction on public mental health services. Aust N Z J Psychiatry2018; 52: 824–825.
LooiJCLAllisonSBastiampillaiT.Commonwealth of common mental health: the need for a comprehensive overhaul of corporate governance in mental healthcare in Australia. Australas Psychiatry2020; 28: 300–302.
14.
LooiJCCartledgeB.Psychiatry and its discontents: foxes, hedgehogs and non-experts. Aust N Z J Psychiatry2018; 52: 1021–1022.
15.
LooiJCKeightleyP.Participatory leadership in addressing mental health crises: If not now, when; if not you, who?Aust N Z J Psychiatry2019; 53: 606–608.
