Senior professionals and middle managers are experiencing increased burnout and stress, leading to higher alcohol consumption, and there is a need for better support and resources for mental health and addiction treatment in Australia, according to Ruth Limkin, Founder of The Banyans and Chief Development Officer at parent Sana Health Group.
“Burnout and stress is likely due to the immense pressure and crisis management they have been facing, leading to a need for self-care. Middle managers are more likely to take out work stress on their family, so it’s important to have conversations and provide support.”, says Ms Limkin.
Alcohol consumption has increased significantly during COVID, with one in three senior managers and 50% of middle managers and the wider workforce drinking more when stressed, including day drinking while working from home.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Ms Limkin, on the Sana Health treatment centres in Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Byron Bay having different client types, with some people self-medicating undiagnosed mental health conditions, and it can be confusing for them to find help.
Sana Health Group offers a wide range of practitioners and treatment programs for mental health, addiction, and eating disorders in Australia. However Ms Limkin raises the issue that in primary health GPs need more funding and support for better patient care and understanding of available options.
“The environment where you receive care affects the care you receive, and it’s important to help patients navigate the healthcare system and understand their treatment options.”, says Ms Limkin.
According to Ms Limkin, healthcare professionals need more resources and time to collaborate with patients and provide holistic care for better results in the Australian health system.
Practitioners need time to work collaboratively with patients using evidence-based research and at Sana Healthcare centres, a more holistic approach to wellbeing is taken to deliver better results.
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Entering The New Health Frontier
A new parliamentary report ‘The New Frontier: Delivering better health for all Australians’ is recommending significant reforms to the health care system to ensure Australians have better and faster access to the wave of new medicines and technologies.
The bipartisan report makes 31 recommendations to reform Australia’s system for the regulation and reimbursement with the hope that patients will receive faster access to the latest medicines and technologies.
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Making clinical trials participant friendly
Clinical trials are essential in developing new, improved, and more effective treatments and interventions. Without trials, researchers and professionals in the field cannot properly determine whether these new treatments and interventions are safe and effective.
The Clinials platform is geared towards patient centric trials and reducing site burden. The aim is to accelerate lifesaving medicines coming to market by connecting participants and researchers. The platform allows participants to come to researchers with their eligibility in hand among other capabilities.
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Allied Health Leader shares career insights
Mirella Vagnarelli is a distinguished healthcare leader with proven expertise across South Australia and the United Kingdom, where she has successfully led large, multidisciplinary teams. Holding a Master of Business Administration (Health) from Flinders University, she earned Fellowship status with the Australasian College of Health Service Management in 2022. In 2023, Mirella was honoured as a scholarship recipient for the prestigious ‘Women in Leadership’ Program at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation.
