Episode 3 - Professor Ian Hickie on going against the grain in the world of psychiatry.

Beneath the Armour

Welcome to episode 3 of BTA podcast!
I was extremely pleased to get Professor Ian Hickie on this week to talk about mental health and Ian’s life and career. Ian is Co-Director, Health and Policy at The University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre and is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow.

We cut across a range of issues in this discussion. As always, I try to guide my guests to talk about their own personal experience of their journey and not focus too much on career success and specifics about what they do. This episode didn’t disappoint.

Ian tells us how he's been a disruptor and had critics but dared to do things differently. He explains that despite what people may see on the exterior, he describes himself as being sensitive, emotional and to his own surprise and delight, was recently described as compassionate by a colleague.

We talk about the importance of relationships and family in mental health and resilience; Ian explains why he's not keen on the concept of individual resilience and instead champions the role of community and family.

He talks about his own experience of mental ill health in the family and the difficult task of navigating the role between a professional who is deeply embedded within the world of mental health vs. being a concerned family member. He shares some great advice on this issue, around advocacy and having a support person when accessing treatment.

Ian is someone who is evidently highly intelligent and knowledgeable, with an impressive career under his belt, but as you will hear, speaks to the importance of recognising group achievements, owning your failures, and the importance of continually pushing for better standards.

There are so many pearls of wisdom nestled within this conversation, interweaved with some lovely reflections from Ian which give you a taster of him as a person underneath the exterior you may see in his work at the interface with politics and in more formal academic settings. His passion for mental health oozes through this conversation and I personally learned a lot talking to him.

Resources:

Ian’s profile page for the University of Sydney:

https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/ian-hickie.html

Ian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ian_hickie

Ian’s publications on Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=5cRsn2AAAAAJ&hl=en