CrazySocks4Docs Day shines a light on doctors’ mental health and wellbeing, while Professor Chris Baggoley is invited to a prestigious WHO role, AMA recognises Associate Professor Rosalie Grivell for her outstanding contribution, and rural GPs earn due recognition.

Professor Baggoley joins WHO committee

Professor Chris Baggoley AO, a previous Chief Medical Officer of Australia, has been invited to join the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee of the World Health Organisation’s Health Emergencies Program. The IOAC is responsible for guiding the development of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, monitoring WHO’s work in outbreaks and emergencies, providing oversight and reporting its findings to the World Health Assembly. Flinders’ Public Health students were recent beneficiaries of Professor Baggoley’s knowledge and insight, as he delivered two guest lectures on 12 May:

• The WHO Pandemic Influenza Planning Framework and its impact on low and middle income countries.
• The processes and implications of a WHO declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC): Case studies with Ebola and MERS.

Professor Baggoley also plans to deliver another guest lecture soon to Flinders students in the Leadership in Public Health topic.

Meanwhile, Professor Paul Arbon will be joining the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 All Partner Task Force Meeting with the IOC, IPC, WHO, Tokyo 2020, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Japanese Government covering consideration of the epidemiological situation, risk analysis and public health measures.

AMA recognition for outstanding contribution

Associate Professor Rosalie Grivell received an AMA (SA) Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medicine at a gala dinner on 22 May, with particular reference made to her influential advocacy for the overhaul of the State’s abortion laws.

Outgoing AMA SA President Dr Chris Moy highlighted Associate Professor Grivell’s contribution to the Termination of Pregnancy Bill debate, saying, “We needed her expert knowledge and the arguments of not only a true expert in her field, but also someone who was willing to stand up for her patients over a matter that placed them in terrible circumstances every day.

She was instrumental in positively bringing together teaching at Flinders Medical School after a very difficult period, and she then guided the program through last year even as the pandemic brought so many changes to studies”.

Rural GP recognition

Flinders graduate and long-standing doctor at the Angaston Medical Centre, Dr Adrian Griscti (GradCertClinEd ’17), was honoured for his 35 years’ service to rural communities by the Rural Doctors’ Workforce Agency at a recent ceremony which celebrated the important role rural GPs play in their communities.

Other GP supervisors acknowledged for their work with Flinders Rural and Remote Health SA were Dr Geoff Arthurson (GradDipClinEd ’20), Dr Christopher Muecke (GradCertClinEd ’06, BMBS ’81), Dr Peter Michelmore and Dr Paul Smith.

Annual #Crazysocks4docs fundraiser 

The annual CrazySocks4Docs Day saw a strong turnout for the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) #Crazysocks4docs Breakfast on Friday 4 June, which promoted awareness for doctors’ mental health and wellbeing.

Money raised from the #CrazySocks4Docs Breakfast events around the country goes to the CrazySocks4Docs Trust Foundation, which helps to raise awareness of the mental health of all doctors around the world.

The Crazysocks4docs movement came out of responses that the founder Dr Geoff Toogood experienced when he happened to wear odd coloured socks to work. As a result of this experience, he established CrazySocks4Docs Day as an attempt to address the stigma around mental health among doctors, and to “make it okay for a doctor not to be okay”.

CrazySocks4Docs Day is held every year on the first Friday of June. The aims of the day are all about normalising the conversation around mental health and creating a safe place to do it.

Keynote speakers at the Adelaide event were SA Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade, Flinders University Professor Nicola Spurrier and Professor Michael Kidd.