Expert Insights – educational podcasts for GPs and mental health professionals

In this fast moving world, medical practitioners and other health professionals are looking for new ways of keeping up to date; ways that use the available technology and that allow them to learn at their own pace, in their own time and even while they are doing something else at the same time!  Acknowledging the pressure, Black Dog Institute has launched the first in a new series of podcasts for GPs and Mental Health Professionals based on its popular Expert Insights meetings.  

These face-to-face meetings have been conducted regularly for several years at the Institute. They are informal meetings with an audience of health professionals and an expert panel that includes several professional experts from different fields of practice and at least one person with relevant lived experience. After a few introductory remarks from panel members the audience is invited to ask questions of the panel creating a rich and clinically relevant content, especially so because of the added value of consumer involvement. Dr Vered Gordon develops the highly regarded GP education programs at the Black Dog Institute and is responsible for the Expert Insight meetings as well.

I asked Vered about where the idea for these meetings came from. This is what she said:

"I was very keen to start a conversation between the researchers and clinicians working within the Black Dog Institute and the health professionals providing mental health care in our local area. My hope was that over time we would create a clinical community that exchanged knowledge and experience in a supportive collaborative setting. The podcasts provide an opportunity to extend our clinical community further afield and I am very excited to be able to include a wider audience in our conversation."

The podcasts are edited versions of the face-to-face meetings. The first podcast is from the February 2016 meeting, which discussed the difference between grief and depression. Panel members are Professor Gordon Parker, Scientia Professor, University of New South Wales, Consultant Psychiatrist, Prince of Wales Psychiatry; Amelia Paterson, Researcher, Black Dog Institute; Michael Dash, Bereavement Coordinator, Sydney Local Health District; Sharyn McGee, Lived Experience Representative.  

Other subjects include: Is it Bipolar or Borderline or Both?; And Managing Insomnia.  Access the recordings here. Listen on your computer or on your mobile device via SoundCloud. Make today's commute an educational experience!