Category Archives: mental health

Making Parenting Easier: Tips, Laughs, and Being Kind to Yourself

Parenting is flipping hard work, yes? You’re responsible for, as my friend Jess says, tiny sociopaths. They’re cute, sure, but they have little in the way of empathy, self-control, or social graces. You get no sick leave. You’re operating on so little sleep that serious reading now means clicking ‘see more’ on Facebook. Communities like […]

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How to Support Someone with Postnatal Depression / Postpartum Depression: 9 Ideas

Do you know someone with PND/PPD? The answer is ‘yes’ Around 10-15% of women who give birth experience postnatal depression, so if you know more than eight women who are mothers, you probably know someone who has been through it – whether she knew that’s what it was or not. Here are two facts you […]

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Matters of Life and Death: Dementia and Ageing

I read some of Sandy’s story on Sunday: I am 57 and was diagnosed in 2004 with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. I was a bank manager and was very active in my community and church. One afternoon, I left work and did not know how to get home. This was the start of a “downhill no return” into the Alzheimer’s world. I am […]

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Matters of Life and Death: Being Human

  What should a doctor do when a terminally ill patient asks her to ‘end it all’ with morphine? What are the implications of expectant parents having Down’s Syndrome screening for their unborn babies? How do we cope and make sense of the world when our ageing parents no longer recognise us? I’m filling in […]

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Matters of Life and Death: Series Outline

I am a locum pastor! My homie Stu is off on a well-deserved holiday with his family, and I’m helping hold the fort at Wellington South Baptist Church in Island Bay. Starting this Sunday, I’m preaching a five-week series on bioethics, humanity and hospitality. It’s called Matters of Life and Death and is based on […]

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