Health briefing

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Irish toothbrushers lack dedication

IRISH PEOPLE don't brush their teeth for long enough, according to an Ipsos MRBI survey. Three-quarters of those asked said they brush for less than the recommended three minutes, while more than a third said they weren't happy with their teeth. Two-fifths of 25- to 34-year-olds said they have avoided kissing or dating someone who did not have good teeth. The survey was commissioned by Aldi to mark the launch of its Irish-made toothpaste Péarla, which was attended by model Corina Grant and her daughter Cara Leigh.

UL appoints artist in residence for medicine

THE GRADUATE Entry Medical School at the University of Limerick has become the first medical school in Ireland to appoint an artist-in-residence. One of the duties of American-born Prof Daniel Duffy will be to lead third-year medical students in a compulsory three-week module on fine art.

“The aim of this course is to improve medical students’ visual acumen through drawing workshops and by observing elaborate narrative paintings,” said Prof Duffy. The idea is that by looking closely at detailed works of art and by drawing the human form, medical students will be more comfortable looking at patients and seeing them as people and noticing a wider set of symptoms.

“Studies of medical students who have participated in such programmes in the United States found that they improved in their diagnostic skills by about 10 per cent,” said Prof Duffy.

“The workshops also give them a break from the intense overload of information and a chance to do something other than absorbing information.”

The artist-in-residence programme is sponsored by Lundbeck Ireland, a pharmaceutical company that specialises in the treatment of central nervous system conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Prof Duffy is originally from New Jersey, and his art has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC; Farmleigh House in Dublin; Royal Hibernian Academy of Art in Dublin; The Naughton Gallery in Queen’s University Belfast; and Fota House, Fota Island, Cork.

Campbell says cuts will hurt mental health

A REDUCTION in budgets for mental-health services will lead to a decline in the country’s mental health, according to an international campaigner, political commentator and writer.

“We’re at a very vulnerable stage and I worry that governments and policymakers will feel that when attitudes to mental health begin to change, it will be an excuse not to provide the services people need,” said Alastair Campbell, former UK newspaper editor and director of communications when Tony Blair was prime minister. He was speaking at an international conference on addiction in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, last week.

Mr Campbell, who spoke openly about his own nervous breakdown at the age of 27 and about his ongoing bouts of depression, said that we had to start looking at people with gambling, alcohol and drug addictions not as a problem but as people with problems that we all have got a responsibility to do something about.

He said that often people say the stigma of mental-health problems and the fear of people finding out are what push people over the edge. He quoted the story of German goalkeeper, Robert Enke, who took his own life in 2009, as a case in point.

“He and his wife had adopted a child after losing a child of their own, and he was worried the social services would think he was unworthy of being a father

if he spoke publically about his depression. A society where discrimination is worse than the symptoms is a society that has something wrong at its core,” he added.