‘Mental health emergency work is not pretty — it’s a hybrid of Dante’s Inferno, Narcos and The Golden Girls’
Psychiatrist and TV presenter Dr Mark Cross knows the mental health system from both sides, as a clinician and a patient.
In his book Mental State, he is open about his own anxiety and the unvarnished reality of treating mental illness, especially at the pointy end that is emergency psychiatric care.
In this extract, he talks about fearing for his safety, the importance of continuity of care, doctors’ own health and what makes it worthwhile.
In April 2023, a senior doctor was stabbed at a hospital in Burnie in Tasmania and was saved thanks to the quick response from his colleagues.
