Unfortunately for people in our country who are not being listened to ( quinsy) , we as a society like to still pretend "we are listening" - the disease is often denial and ours more than theirs.

Why do we so desperately want to show we care? It is a symptom of what the psychologist Oliver James has dubbed our "low serotonin" society. Despite being healthier, richer and better-off than in living memory, we in the West are more depressed than ever. Institutions such as the church, marriage and the family have withered in the postwar era. Raised in fragmented family units, more of us live by ourselves. Ostentatious caring permits the lonely nation to forge new social bonds. As James concludes: "A common impulse behind wanting to give love unconditionally to non-intimates is the desire to receive it."

dogood rather than exhaust yourself?

From a review of Patrick West's book CIS publication

People suicide when they feel no one is listening - those who are close to them know the cities indifference is not close enough to the truth to care.

What the party politicians are doing to Australia's farming families is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE... what the party politicians are doing to the Emerald citrus growing farming families is a NATIONAL DISGRACE!

Please show that you care...

Respectfully

Selwyn
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Selwyn Johnston

It would be a missed point of political juggularity if all the noise about Peter Andrews ( Australain story ABCTV this week) got no further than a slanging match about " who knows best " .

I am not going to spell it out here except to say that a common phobia ( often held in denial by persons affected ) is rife and environmental health care is a complete cot case in traditional health care terms (This condition is well known to practicioners of any competence.)

Who really cares ? Not the quick fixers and those cultivating the emergency service mentality
The "Just in time" models of industry DO NOT substitute well for the preventative focus of big picture governance.

Who will be the first parliamentarian to break ranks from the wonderworking power of "industy knows best" chants > Find one !

Spreading Jam on Wounds
While I welcome the focus on the pointy end, the conservatives will still give the dollar to the wrong accountability groups simply because they prefer simplicity. They like to focus on the sweets rather than the substance . Our leaders still get lulled into a sense of comfort by the mere mention of the word "enterprise" unaware of the high risk of isolation rather than integration- The left hand not knowesth what the right handeth doeth .The nurse and the CEO talk different languages. One offers jam, the other talks about uneccesary jagged edges, and how to avoid them .
Government is not business and true accountability ( Minister to Department) is still the key to sore prevention,stable and sustainable and more satisfying staffing .
All the other expensive rubbish their revived quango theology has created in the last couple of decsdes will keep coming back to bite them big time- the waste is the current governments creation ---not neccesarily the goodwill and volunteer groups,groups who one presumes still get little money for propaganda purposes.

How do those of you in health care feel about quangos ,and the plethora of simple bookeeper and accountancy priests that still rule with dubious honor ? se also govtisnotbusiness

"I've got no doubt that right across the country we're spending far too much on bureaucracy and administration and we need to make sure more of it gets to the pointy end," hON IAN CAMPBELL said.