Yesterday I attended a research meeting about a project in which we are proposing a screening tool for identifying depression in young people. I became conscious of the reality of sorting out financial commitments before any research can be agreed. This is an area of difficulty as NHS organisations in the UK may not be able to fund research.
I was reading my daughter's dissertation yesterday. She wrote about the differing approaches of Western Philosophy and Japanese philosophy in relation to artificial intelligence and technology.
Descartes talked about mind body dualism. The mind is separate from the body. In Western Philosophy technology leads to progress in spite of and at the expense of nature.
Nishida on nothingness and Watsuji on the connectedness of things help us think of a Japanese world view of technology advancing while conversing nature.
In the article by Appleton et al 2022 data from over a thousand young people was analysed to give four themes to help GPs in their thinking about supporting young people with mental health consultations for depression. These themes were:
1. Trusting relationship
2. Clinician to show empathy and take concerns seriously
3. Young person is given time to talk
4. Barriers still remain for young people in accessing mental health support and care
Alfred is now working as Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in the Young Peoples' Specialist Substance Misuse Treatment Service in Bristol for Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust where he has been employed since 2021. Before this he worked in the Wiltshire Outreach Service and the Melksham CAMHS Eating Disorders Service from 2016-2021, for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. UKCP registration for Family Therapy stopped in 2020 during the pandemic but systemic practice continues as an essential part of the daily work.
Happy Easter! I have had a good day making Sri Lankan lamb with potatoes and greens. It was a peaceful day spent with family.
I have now moved my practice to the Young Person's Specialist Substance Misuse Treatment Service YPSSMTS in Bristol where I have been since May 2023.
In the last few weeks I have been thinking about the way Anorexia affects some girl very severely. In our clinic most will recover after one year but a handful develop a chronic course with more preoccupation with anorexic thinking, voice hearing and a more depressive experience.
In the last few months I have been involved in teaching medical students because in the next 10 years I would like to give back some my learning through clinical experience back to the next generation of students and doctors. My wife and I are both doctors and we have looked back on our younger selves with compassion in relation to our witness of suffering, sickness and death of our patients. I feel a need to protect doctors from the future trauma they will face as hospital doctors.
The assumptions are that