Topic for first meeting

At our first meeting we will be discussing 'what is psychology?'.

When we say that word what do we mean? When we say that we work within the discipline how does that shape the work that we do, the services we work within, and the people we work with?

To provide some sort of an anchor for our discussions we have picked a short chapter from Guy Holmes' book 'psychology in the real world'. Which, by the way is a great book! I'll bring along my copy to the meeting so that people can have a flick through it.

We have been given permission to reproduce the chapter (no. 2 'what is meant by psychology') and share it with those who are attending. I will email out a copy to everyone on the list two weeks beforehand.

So..... if you haven't done so already contact me on aidanjakelly[at]gmail.com and put your name on the email list.

Here are some possible topics for future discussions:

1. The use of academic/ professional language. How it can exclude or marginalise consumers and maintain professionals privileged positions.
2. ECT- good, bad or ugly?
3. Diagnosis, who wins and who losses by using the DSM and ICD?
4. Politics and mental health- can clinicians really be a-political? Do we not treat the symptoms of a sick society?
5. Symptom reduction as the goal. What are the pro's and con's of a system that is set up that way?
6. RCT's as the gold standard in research- what are the pitfalls? 
7. "The literature states that CBT is the best evidenced treatment for X disorder". What does that mean for all other modalities? How useful are things like the NICE guidelines? Are we evidence-based practitioners if we don't use CBT?
8. What is mental illness? Does it really mean that your mind is ill? How about dis-order? When do you stop being abnormal and become normal? Prevalence rates of certain disorders have sky-rocketed (e.g. ADHD). Are those behaviours still abnormal when so many children in the Australia now have the diagnosis? 
9. What's the role of psychiatric medication? How do professionals educate people about the meds they are taking and the rationale for taking them?

This is only a provisional list and we encourage people to suggest other topics (just email me). We hope that 2 or 3 people from the group will agree to facilitate each discussion. You don't need to be an expert in the area, you just need to pick a short article, video, or podcast that relates to the topic (for people to access beforehand), feel familiar enough with the issues to start off the discussion and guide us in case we get stuck.

Looking forward to starting our discussions on the 12th of March!!