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Late last year, Professor Tony Jorm published a fairly scathing critique of the Better Access scheme for Medicare-funded sessions to psychology.
Myself and Chris Lee wrote a reply which was published today, the text of which can be read here.
www.aaronfrost.com.au/where-australias-better-access-scheme-has-had-an-impact-on-mental-health-a-...
aaronfrost.com.au
In a recent paper, Professor Jorm (2018) concluded that there was no discernible impact of the Better Access Scheme on the mental health of the Australian population. In making this conclusion, Jorm f...How a new car and an electric razor taught me about feedback - Aaron Frost
aaronfrost.com.au
What does an Electric Razor and a new car have to do with Psychotherapy? In the last week, I have made two major purchases; a new car and a new electric razor. “Hooray for you” you might think, bu...Beautiful readOn July 31, 1968, a young, black man was reading the newspaper when he saw something that he had never seen before. With tears in his eyes, he started running and screaming throughout the house, calling for his mom. He would show his mom, and, she would gasp, seeing something she thought she would never see in her lifetime. Throughout the nation, there were similar reactions.
What they saw was Franklin Armstrong's first appearance on the iconic comic strip "Peanuts." Franklin would be 50 years old this year.
Franklin was "born" after a school teacher, Harriet Glickman, had written a letter to creator Charles M. Schulz after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death outside his Memphis hotel room.
Glickman, who had kids of her own and having worked with kids, was especially aware of the power of comics among the young. “And my feeling at the time was that I realized that black kids and white kids never saw themselves [depicted] together in the classroom,” she would say.
She would write, “Since the death of Martin Luther King, 'I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear and violence.'”
Glickman asked Schulz if he could consider adding a black character to his popular comic strip, which she hoped would bring the country together and show people of color that they are not excluded from American society.
She had written to others as well, but the others feared it was too soon, that it may be costly to their careers, that the syndicate would drop them if they dared do something like that.
Charles Schulz did not have to respond to her letter, he could have just completely ignored it, and everyone would have forgotten about it. But, Schulz did take the time to respond, saying he was intrigued with the idea, but wasn't sure whether it would be right, coming from him, he didn't want to make matters worse, he felt that it may sound condescending to people of color.
Glickman did not give up, and continued communicating with Schulz, with Schulz surprisingly responding each time. She would even have black friends write to Schulz and explain to him what it would mean to them and gave him some suggestions on how to introduce such a character without offending anyone. This conversation would continue until one day, Schulz would tell Glickman to check her newspaper on July 31, 1968.
On that date, the cartoon, as created by Schulz, shows Charlie Brown meeting a new character, named Franklin. Other than his color, Franklin was just an ordinary kid who befriends and helps Charlie Brown. Franklin also mentions that his father was "over at Vietnam." At the end of the series, which lasted three strips, Charlie invites Franklin to spend the night one day so they can continue their friendship. [The original comic strip of Charlie Brown meeting Franklin is attached in the initial comments below, the picture attached here is Franklin meeting the rest of the Peanuts, including Linus. I just thought this was a good re-introduction of Franklin to the rest of the world - "I'm very glad to know you."
There was no big announcement, there was no big deal, it was just a natural conversation between two kids, whose obvious differences did not matter to them. And, the fact that Franklin's father was fighting for this country was also a very strong statement by Schulz.
Although Schulz never made a big deal over the inclusion of Franklin, there were many fans, especially in the South, who were very upset by it and that made national news. One Southern editor even said, “I don’t mind you having a black character, but please don’t show them in school together.”
It would eventually lead to a conversation between Schulz and the president of the comic's distribution company, who was concerned about the introduction of Franklin and how it might affect Schulz' popularity. Many newspapers during that time had threatened to cut the strip.
Schulz' response: "I remember telling Larry at the time about Franklin -- he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, "Well, Larry, let's put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?"
Eventually, Franklin became a regular character in the comic strips, and, despite complaints, Franklin would be shown sitting in front of Peppermint Patty at school and playing center field on her baseball team.
More recently, Franklin is brought up on social media around Thanksgiving time, when the animated 1973 special "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" appears. Some people have blamed Schulz for showing Franklin sitting alone on the Thanksgiving table, while the other characters sit across him. But, Schulz did not have the same control over the animated cartoon on a television network that he did on his own comic strip in the newspapers.
But, he did have control over his own comic strip, and, he courageously decided to make a statement because of one brave school teacher who decided to ask a simple question.
Glickman would explain later that her parents were "concerned about others, and the values that they instilled in us about caring for and appreciating everyone of all colors and backgrounds — this is what we knew when we were growing up, that you cared about other people . . . And so, during the years, we were very aware of the issues of racism and civil rights in this country [when] black people had to sit at the back of the bus, black people couldn’t sit in the same seats in the restaurants that you could sit . . . Every day I would see, or read, about black children trying to get into school and seeing crowds of white people standing around spitting at them or yelling at them . . . and the beatings and the dogs and the hosings and the courage of so many people in that time."
Because of Glickman, because of Schulz, people around the world were introduced to a little boy named Franklin.
I will be on 3AW with Denis Walter this afternoon at around 12:30.
He is being interviewed about an exciting new program called "Navigator", which is going to help MLC life insurance clients get access to high quality mental health assessment and treatment planning at the start of their mental health journey.
Benchmark is excited to be one of the first practices to be a part of this great new initiative, and Aaron has been an important advisor in the development of the new system.
Live streaming available here ...
www.3aw.com.au/show/afternoons-with-denis-walter/
3aw.com.au
He has hosted 3AW Afternoons since 2008, keeping Melburnians up-to-date during the working week while interviewing local stars and some of the biggest international names around.Great News From AHPRA
My supervision renewal status just came through today.
Thanks to Prof Analise O'Donovan for her very inspiring master-class on resistance in supervision, and to AHPRA for processing this application in less than 3 days.
Some musings about the current state of psychotherapy research, and what it means for us at the coalface.
Psychotherapy: Waiting for a paradigm shift | Aaron Frost
aaronfrost.com.au
What is a paradigm shift? The idea of a paradigm shift has been hijacked by advertising agencies and used to describe everything from a new smartphone, to a lower fat cheese. But in science, the id...Critique of the Power Threat Meaning framework recently posited by the British Devision of Clinical Psychologists.
Well worth a read
www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/power-threat-meaning-framework-innovative-and-important-...
Power Threat Meaning Framework: innovative & important? #PTMFramework
nationalelfservice.net
Paul Salkovskis & Irene Sutcliffe explore the Power Threat Meaning Framework published by the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology.I get asked this question by supervisees at least weekly, and it is a growing area of complaints against psychologists. I've written a brief overview of my take on how to apply ethical guidelines to requests for reports from third-party payers.
Is it ok to write a report for a client you are treating? | Aaron Frost
aaronfrost.com.au
Is it ok to write a report for a client you are treating? As a supervisor and practice owner, these requests come in pretty frequently, and I often find myself helping my supervisees work through t...Fascinating look at why we need metrics in psychotherapy
TED
The psychology behind why incompetent people are usually unaware of their weaknesses (via TED-Ed):
Excellence in private practice workshop with me, Kaye Francom and Daryl Chow is in Melbourne this week.
Brisbane and Sydney still to come ... :)
www.psychology.org.au/Event/19279?view=true
www.aaronfrost.com.au/the-psychology-of-shooting-back/
Does America want an army of "weaponised" teachers ?
Have you ever stopped to consider how important mindset is in order to be able to do great work from a feedback informed point of view.
Thanks to the school psychologists association of WA for inviting me over last week to talk about this important topic as a keynote to their annual conference.
Not quite sure what this is all about, but who doesnt like a bit of recognition
One of the great privileges of my careeer is that I get to spend time working with passionate clinicians who genuinely care about delivering the best help for their clients
A full day ahead working with the lovely people here on getting the best outcomes for their clients
34 soon to be #psychology supervisors. Doing their final deliberative practice exercise of two day intensive STAP training. Only video left. Good luck guys :)
www.aaronfrost.com.au/musical-suicides/
Suicides are not randomly distributed, they occur in clusters
aaronfrost.com.au
I have been a clinical psychologist for almost 20 years, but I’ve been a fan of metal music for closer to 30. I grew up on a diet rich in double kick bass drums, shredding guitar solos, and intersp...For National Psychology week, I would like to focus about the psychology of consumerism and how it is both unfulfilling and lies at the heart of an unsustainable economic model.
www.aaronfrost.com.au/buying-more-stuff-wont-make-you-happier/
Buying more stuff won't make you happier
aaronfrost.com.au
As national psychology week unfolds, most of us will have already been bombarded with plenty of feel good stories about mental health awareness and how a psychologist can help. However, the story we ...Motivational Interviewing training video, featuring me as a slightly more rotund than i see myself cartoon character.
Hard to judge, but had a great time doing this with the medical educators at RVTS and UTAS. Thanks for asking me :-)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcllUo9RqJoMany thanks to Dr Natalie Burch at RVTS, who turned my day long workshops into this neat little package.
Well worth the read
Good Enough to Great - Growth Mindset Parenting
Students may be missing foundational skills for learning that are actually teachable.