
Deliberately Better
By Dr Damon Ashworth

Deliberately BetterJun 05, 2021

What Vanuatu is Doing to Help Individuals, Families and Communities with Mental Health Challenges
Dr Damon Ashworth, Clinical Psychologist, chats with Dr Jimmy Obed, Psychiatrist about mental health in Vanuatu.
They discuss:
1. What led to Dr Obed's interest in psychiatry
2. What's the difference between a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse or life coach
3. How mental illness has been historically perceived and managed in Vanuatu
4. When the mind care clinic began in Vanuatu and how big the team is
5. What the mind care clinic does to help out individuals, their families, and their communities
6. What the most common mental health difficulties in Vanuatu are
7. The main differences between gas and anxiety or panic attacks
8. When medication is most useful or necessary
9. How therapy, or non-medication strategies help
10. The help that is offered to people who cannot make it to Port Vila hospital for an assessment or treatment
11. How home visits help and how they can reduce inpatient hospital stays
12. The type of support provided to people with mental health concerns on the other islands of Vanuatu outside of Efate
13. If there still an issue with stigma or discrimination towards people with mental health difficulties in Vanuatu
14. What someone can do if they are feeling stressed or worried or know a family member or friend who doesn't seem to be coping too well
15. What Dr Obed's hopes are for the future of mental health and psychiatry in Vanuatu

What difference can hearing difficulties make in your life, and can improving them help you to live a better quality of life?
Dr Damon Ashworth, Clinical Psychologist, sits down with his older brother and Audiologist Kurt Ashworth to discuss:
* what Audiology is,
* The difference Audiology can make in improving people's quality of life,
* How hearing aids and cochlear implants can help,
* What causes tinnitus and misophonia and how these conditions can be managed,
* How Audiologists can help make custom earplugs for people with a bed partner who snores, and
* Kurt's hopes for the field of Audiology in the future.
For those who want to get more help with their hearing, get in touch with Kurt at Ballarat Hearing (https://www.ballarathearingclinic.com.au/).

Addiction
Dr Damon Ashworth sits down with Ryan Hassan to discuss addiction and mental illness. They talk about all-natural outpatient therapies that help people with substance use issues without medication.

Answering all of the questions you may have about sleep
Dr Damon Ashworth sits down with Dr David Cunnington, Sleep Physician, and Sleep Psychologist Hailey Meaklim and asks them about everything that can impact your sleep.

Nutrition discussion
Damon chats with Author, Nutritionist and Health Coach Kitty Cheng to discuss everything related to Nutrition and Healthy Eating.

What is Healthy Eating?
Discussing with Nutritionist and Dietician Jess Turton from Ellipse Health about everything to do with nutrition and how it can help you to improve your health.

The only three things that you need to understand if you want to have a good night's sleep
Many people will tell you all the different things you could try if you want to sleep well. But do you understand why you are sleeping poorly? Or what you can do to help improve your specific sleep issues? If you understand these three underlying sleep mechanisms and how to influence them, you can try the things that are most likely to work the best for you and get your sleep back on track quickly.

SMART goals and the importance of tracking progress over time
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Clinical Psychologist Dr Ben Buchanan on his company NovoPsych, the importance of tracking your client's or your progress over time, and how to best set SMART goals to improve things over time. By setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely goals, you are most likely to improve exactly what you want over time.

Strategies to best change habits
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Clinical Psychologist Dr Erin Todd on her new online course that is helping people to best make behavioural changes in their life. They discuss the differences between her course and other courses on behavioural changes, and how to best make habits stick going forward.

Everything you need to know about blood pressure
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews General Practitioner Dr Martin Fox about blood pressure and his work as the primary GP at Southgate Medical Centre, at 3 Southgate Avenue Southbank, Melbourne. They discuss what blood pressure is, what causes it, and what can be done about it.

Working with mental health professionals and developing passive income streams
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Chaos Coordinator Natasha Ace on how she works with mental health professionals. They discuss the differences between working with psychologists in Melbourne, Australia and the United States of America. Natasha then discusses her work with private practitioners here in Australia, and her new course on helping them to develop passive income streams so that they aren't just reliant on seeing people on an hourly basis for their income.

Autism, ADHD and the NDIS
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Educational and Developmental Psychologist Dr Allison Haynes about all things to do with Autism, ADHD and the NDIS. They discuss how scary it was to take the step to move into running a private practice business, and using strengths and outside supports to best help someone in their mental health and overall health.

How to approach public speaking
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth catches up with the Author and Motivational Speaker Dr Scott Harris about how he has been over the last two years since he has been last interviewed for the podcast. Scott talks about how the book launch was, how his work has been since then, and how he approaches his public speaking work.

How to look after yourself during isolation
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Clinical Neuropsychologist Dr Harvey Jones about the top five things that anyone can do to look after themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Trauma, PTSD and recommended treatments
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Clinical Psychologist Dr Jon Finch about trauma, PTSD and recommended treatments. Jon is a specialist is an expert in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) who helps to train and supervise other psychologists in CPT. They discuss trauma in the public, and what is most effective for PTSD.

Bodybuilding and working out
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Bodybuilder Michael Moses about what it is like to be a bodybuilder. Damon asks Michael some questions about diet and working out too.

Living with cancer
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Jasmine Labrie about what it is like to live with cancer.

Crashing into potential
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Author and Motivational Speaker Scott Harris on his excellent book Crashing Into Potential and the experiences that influenced this. Scott suffered a traumatic brain injury following a motorcycle accident. They discuss the accident, his time in a coma, his long rehab process and how other people were towards him during this time too.

Neuropsychology and brain injury
Clinical Psychologist Dr Damon Ashworth interviews Clinical Neuropsychologist Dr Harvey Jones about what it is like to work in Neuropsychology. They also discuss a number of questions about brain injury.