Hunter, Ernest (2025) Different oceans; common challenges. Australasian Psychiatry, 33 (2). pp. 185-187.

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

[Extract] As the terminus of archipelagic Asia, Australia might be considered the hyphen in the Indo-Pacific, bounded by nations in which reside the majority of the world’s population, including that in four of the five most populous countries. As a concept, the Indo-Pacific is now more than a century old, with great-power geopolitics ensuring it will retain currency. That has consequences for the constellations of island nations (and territories that that have thus-far survived decolonization) whose numerically tiny populations are scattered across the oceanic vastness from East Africa to the Americas. Particularly for Small Island Developing States (SIDS), those challenges are compounded by other global issues (for instance, climate change and pandemics) competing for political attention and scarce resources. For clinicians and health workers at the village level, already struggling to respond to physical and mental health demands in the context of the welter of ecological and social change, those big-picture issues may not be obvious or seem relevant. That’s but one challenge for health service planners, for whom these are two sides of the same coin, one that they probably sometimes feel obliged to toss.

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page