Australia’s Leading Experts on Children & Teenagers in one Event

In a bold move, backed by readers who suggested they preferred to see “real women”, the UK monthly magazine Essentials will no longer feature models or celebrities on its front cover.

Published by IPC Media, the October issue runs with the theme “Celebrating women like you” and contains no models or celebrities at all. Stories include:
Real Fashion – wear all the new trends your way
Real Beauty – easy make up and beauty modeled by you
Real You – it’s never too late to get what you want

The magazine also celebrates women in an article about real women; Amazing at every age, size and shape. Essentials main feature is a social media campaign to find 10 real women to put on its front cover. Essentials said it was a “UK media first for women’s glossies”.

Essentials’ editor, Jules Barton-Breck, said: “So many of these women look, and are, amazing that we wanted to celebrate them. In our recent reader survey 70% told us that they would rather see a real woman on the cover of a magazine than a celebrity, so we’re excited to be the first magazine in the UK to do this every month.”

This comes at a time when many experts are worried about the effect magazines containing very thin models and the glamorous lifestyles of the rich and famous are having on adolescents and young women. 

Selena Ewing from Women’s Forum Australia said “one very clear finding is that there are harmful effects of being exposed to pictures of thing and glamourous women. Poor body image, lower self-esteem, anger, anxiety, shame, self-surveillance are documented responses.”

She added “Women may not realise this is happening to them; they may not make any connection between the glossy, breautiful, popular magazines and the negative, often hidden aspects of their own lives.”

Women’s Forum Australia has researched the issue of how women are portrayed in the media and as part of their findings they produced a satirical magazine-style publication as their research paper.  Faking It: the female image in young women’s magazines reflects the body of academic research on magazines, mass media, premature sexualisation of girls, and the sexual objectification of women.

According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures in the UK, Essentials was once again the biggest climber of mainstream magazines. It now has a circulation of 115,432, up by nearly 13% year on year.

Interestingly Cosmopolitan and Company reported the biggest falls in the women’s lifestyle and fashion sector, with a 9% drop by Cosmopolitan. Despite the fact that they feature high end fashion and have models and celebrities crammed into each issue.

Ilka Schmitt, the magazine’s publisher, said: “Celebrating our readers by putting them on the cover is a brave move, but it just feels right for Essentials. Essentials is a woman’s magazine that offers something different and more and more women are discovering that. Seven consecutive year-on-year ABC increases do not lie.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Essentials Magazine. Women’s Forum Australia

The dangers of drinking alcohol during pregnancy are highlighted by International FASD Awareness day (September 9th). Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a term that describes a range of disabilities, birth defects and brain damage that may be caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol.

It has been estimated that the prevalence of FASD in Australia is 0.06 per 1,000 live births, and even higher in Indigenous populations at 8.11 per 1,000 live births.*

Furthermore, once a woman bears a child with FASD, the chances of subsequent children having symptoms of FAS are as much as 405 times higher than the general population (Health Dept of WA 1998).

The booklet Alcohol, other drugs and pregnancy By the Australian Drug Foundation aims to answer some questions about the effects of drug and alcohol use before and during pregnancy. It also covers a variety of legal and illegal drugs, prescribed and over-the-counter medicines. Also discussed are concerns about withdrawal and drug use during breastfeeding.
 
Why avoid alcohol during pregnancy?
Alcohol passes from the mother’s bloodstream into the foetus via the placenta, raising the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of the foetus. This may lead to miscarriage, premature birth or still birth in a pregnancy as well as small babies who are more prone to illness, slow growth and developmental problems.

Alcohol can interfere with the oxygen and nourishment that pass through the placenta into the foetus. This can affect normal growth and cell development in the foetus, leading to birth defects and brain damage.

Physical signs of FASD include:

• low birth weight and reduced body size
• a distinct pattern of facial features that include a low nasal bridge and short nose, small eyes or thin lips
• poor eyesight, hearing or speech, and
• organ defects, particularly the heart and kidney.

It is important to note that there may be no physical signs, but psychological or behavioural effects may appear later on.

Psychological and behavioural effects include:

• learning difficulties such as deficits in attention and memory
• delayed development
• impulsiveness
• social anxiety
• hyperactivity, and
• other behavioural problems.

A doctor or health professional should be consulted if there are concerns that a baby has been affected by its mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

Key advice
It is difficult to identify the exact levels of drinking which may cause harm to the child, and for this reason, the World Health Organisation suggests that there is no safe level at which alcohol can be drunk during pregnancy, and that the safest approach for pregnant women is not to drink any alcohol at all.

It is also recommended that women wanting to become pregnant limit their alcohol consumption to infrequent, small amounts. If a pregnant woman chooses to drink, however, then according to Australian guidelines she should have no more than two standard drinks (spread over at least two hours) on any one day, and have less than seven standard drinks over a week.

For more information visit the FASD website or go to DrugInfo Clearinghouse 2009 Pregnancy and alcohol fact sheet, Melbourne: Australian Drug Foundation.

*Elliott E, Payne J, Morris A, Haan E & Bower C 2008 “Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: a prospective national surveillance study”, Archives of Disease in Childhood, 93, pp. 732–37.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: FASD 

The headspace website is designed for parents, carers, teachers and professionals who work with young people. It deals with a range of issues that affect the youth of today including:

• Mental Health
• Drugs and Alcohol
• Cyberbullying
• Health and Wellbeing
• Research and useful links
• Parents and carers
• Getting Help

Videos
The site also features several videos from young people and parents who have experienced problems. The ‘Something’s not right’ video clip, talks about a parents experience of seeking help. This video clip is taken from a DVD entitled ‘Where there’s hope’ produced by Orygen Youth Health Research Centre.

The ‘Persistence’ video clip relates a parent’s experience of her daughter’s gradual improvement and the need to persist with treatment.

Fact sheets
There are specific information and fact sheets about mental health and illness, drugs and alcohol, and mental health research. The fact sheets provide some practical information to support those in a caring role:
• Managing health care and medications
• Managing money
• Legal arrangements
• Safety at home

The Carer Information Pack produced by the Commonwealth Carer Resource Centre also contains an Emergency Care Plan and a list for recording medication requirements:
• Emergency Care Plan
• List for recording medication requirements

If you need face to face help then there are 30 headspace centres around Australia which offer several services. Contact details for all centres are located on the website.

Parents and Carers
Young people can go through many different changes as they grow up. Raising sensitive issues and working to resolve problems that arise along the way can be challenging. It can also be hard as a parent to know the difference between normal behaviour, such as moodiness, irritability and withdrawal, and an emerging mental health problem. This section is designed to help parents and carers to:
• talk to a young person about their problems
• learn more about how to support young people
• find information about where you can find the right help, and
• find support for yourself. 

Signs and symptoms to look out for
Encourage someone to see a doctor if anything on this checklist describes how they feel or act:

• Stop talking to family and friends
• Become afraid or suspicious for no reason
• Develop strange ideas
• Hear voices no one else can hear
• Feel they have special powers
• Have difficulty concentrating
• Say or write things that don’t make sense
• Abuse drugs or alcohol

Headspace Knowledge Centre – for professionals
The headspace Knowledge Centre provides up-to-date information about treatment interventions and models of care for young people with mental health and substance use issues. It is designed for professionals who work with young people, as well as researchers and academics and members of the community who are interested in youth mental health.

Centre of Excellence: this provides an overview of some of the most common mental health and substance use disorders affecting young people. These overviews focus on:

• the diagnostic criteria for these disorders (including some of the difficulties in diagnosing mental illness in young people)
• the prevalence of these conditions,
• the ages of onset,
• evidence-based treatment options, and
• information about current models of care.

Evidence Mapping: is a dynamic resource that assembles all the evidence and research regarding treatment interventions for common mental health and substance use problems affecting young people. The Evidence Maps will be continually updated. Currently, the Evidence Map for Depression is available, with the other disorder areas coming online throughout 2008-2009.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: headspace

The recent 63rd United Nations Department of Public Information NGO Conference held in Melbourne focused on improving women and children’s health.

“Advancing global health is essential to the Millennium Development Goals, and you are essential to advancing global health,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The central concern of Mr. Ban’s opening remarks was the need to improve women’s and children’s health “the area where we are most behind”.  Simple measures could make a huge difference, he told the gathering, whose activism the United Nations not only valued, but depended upon.

On the agenda was a workshop hosted by Australia on the harms of alcohol misuse. Conducted by Rev. Tim Costello Director of the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation (AER Foundation), the discussion and workshop concentrated on identifying community driven solutions to alcohol misuse.

The Alcohol Education & Rehabilitation Foundation (AER) is a unique, independent, not-for-profit organisation with a goal to change the way we drink.

AER Foundation Chairman Cheryl Bart said: “Alcohol misuse has been identified as a priority issue by the World Health Organisation, yet a policy response remains noticeably absent from our own political agenda.”

“We can no longer ignore the significant human and financial cost of alcohol-related harms, which impact upon the physical, mental and social wellbeing of drinkers and people around them. The $36 billion cost of alcohol-related harms demonstrates to government the urgent need for reform in this area” he added.

Research has found that young people and women are at greatest risk of harm from others misuse of alcohol. In Australia every year 24,000 women are victims of alcohol related domestic violence assaults and 20,000 children are victims of alcohol-related child abuse.

Professor Ian Webster of the AER Foundation said, “Much more needs to be done to support our young people, particularly young women, to prevent them from being negatively affected by our current problematic drinking culture.”

A report funded by the AER Foundation, conducted by the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) at Curtin University, Perth revealed voluntary restrictions on the sale of alcohol in the town of Norseman WA, led to a 17.5% reduction in assaults, a 60.5% fall in alcohol related hospital admissions and a 10% decrease in per capita consumption of alcohol.

The report entitled, Don’t Wake Up Angry No More – The Evaluation of the Norseman Voluntary Liquor Agreement, measured the impact of voluntary alcohol restrictions put in place in the town of Norseman with a population of 857 individuals, 12% of whom are Aboriginal people.

The AER Foundation workshop shared internationally significant findings from its major new research report: The Range and Magnitude of Alcohol’s Harm to Others, Beyond the drinker: Alcohol’s hidden costs*.

“We need to change the way we drink. Australia is a very fortunate nation, yet we squander our good fortune by continuing to sideline the preventative health agenda. Enough is enough,” said Ms Bart.

Alcohol misuse is a significant contributor to a range of health and social issues, including violence, crime, child abuse and mortality, in both developed and developing countries.

The AER Foundation workshop will focus on the disproportionate effect of alcohol misuse on children, young adults, women and Indigenous people.

*The study was commissioned by the AER Foundation to assess harm caused by the heavy drinking of others. It draws on existing and newly developed data, including a national survey of more than 2,600 Australians aged 18 or older conducted in 2008.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: AER Foundation. UN Department of Public Information NGO Conference.

The QLD Government has just released a toolkit Working Together, A toolkit for parents to address bullying aimed at parents and teachers so they are better equipped to deal with bullying.

Education and Training Minister Geoff Wilson said “This toolkit for parents complements the toolkit for schools released earlier this year. Most importantly the toolkit has been informed by the questions asked by parents during the Action Against Bullying Education Series conducted across Queensland by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg.”

The National Centre Against Bullying defines 5 different types of bullying:

1. Physical bullying, including hitting, poking, tripping, pushing or damaging someone’s belongings.
2. Verbal bullying, involving name calling, insults, homophobic or racist remarks and verbal abuse.
3. Social bullying, where lies or rumours are spread, or someone plays a nasty joke, mimics, or deliberately excludes someone else.
4. Psychological bullying, where someone is threatened, manipulated or stalked.
5. cyber bullying, where someone uses technology (for example, email, mobile phone, chat rooms or social networking sites) to bully verbally, socially, or psychologically.

The toolkit gives parents information on how to identify various types of bullying, including cyber bullying, methods of dealing with bullying and how to work with schools to keep their child safe.

Mr Wilson said the toolkits were just one initiative of the Queensland Schools Alliance Against Violence (QSAAV), formed in February 2010 to provide advice on best practice measures to address bullying and violence in schools.

“In addition to the toolkit for parents Dr Carr-Gregg has recorded a series of informative webisodes on bullying and their role in supporting their children and working with schools,” Mr Wilson said.

The 6 webisodes are readily available through the Department of Education and Training (DET) website and the topics covered are:

• What is bullying?
• What are the signs your child may be bullied?
• How do you support your child?
• How can you work with the school?
• What if your child is the bully?
• What is cyber-bullying?

 Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, adolescent psychologist and Generation Next speaker said “many bullies don’t know at a conscious level, that their behaviours are abusive, but unconsciously they know they are taking away the target’s power. Australian research says that 1 in 6 students are bullied weekly and are bothered by it. 54% of Year 7 students say they feel unsafe at school.”

Mr Wilson concluded by saying “It is a positive and practical outcome for schools and parents that will help them to keep children safe in our schools.” he said.

Working Together, A toolkit for parents to address bullying and the 6 webisodes can be found here: http://education.qld.gov.au/studentservices/behaviour/qsaav/index.html

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha
Source: Queensland State Government; Department of Education and Training

There is an increasing trend for fashion houses to glamorise death. The obsession with beautiful dead women has seen a number of recent ad campaigns idolise death, murder and suicide in women’s fashion. Young girls are being told that you can even look sexy when you are dead.

Taking the theme of ‘dead women are sexy’, Gucci recently featured a new ad campaign shot in Marrakech which showed models lying lifeless in the desert sand.

More disturbingly are the more graphic ads which further suggest that the model’s demise has been the result of male violence. Ads like Duncan Quinn show a man in a smart suit who has clearly strangled a woman. She is wearing nothing but sexy underwear and is lying motionless on the bonnet of a car.

Another ad by Dolce and Gabbana (later banned in Italy) featured a woman being pinned down by a man while a group of men looked on (waiting their turn?) the scene looked like a gang rape, and yet it was actually selling shoes.

Author of Getting Real and Generation Next speaker, Melinda Tankard Reist is a long standing campaigner for the portrayal of sexualisation and violence against women in the media to be banned.

“All these images and messages make a mockery of global campaigns to stop the abuse of women. They feed violence, fuel violence and contribute to an environment which every day becomes more dangerous for women and girls” she said.

Now to suicide – The South Korean fashion label Lewitt recently engaged American photographer Ryan McGinley to make a video promoting their brand of clothing.

It featured Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw and was apparently inspired by Alice in Wonderland. However the clip depicts Kershaw jumping from a tall building rather than falling down something. Her climb to the top of the building, hesitation before jumping and free fall as she tumbles down over the building all feature multiple changes of wardrobe.

But Alice in Wonderland wasn’t climbing a very tall building with the intent of throwing herself off, oh no, she fell down a rabbit hole and it was an accident.

Adolescent psychologist and Generation Next speaker Dr Michael Carr-Gregg commented that it seemed like an odd concept for promoting fashion to young women in a country that boasts one of the world’s highest female suicide rates. Odder still, given that seven models have committed suicide in the last 2 years (4 by jumping), including South Korea’s Daul Kim who committed suicide in November 2009.

The data showed that 18.7 out of every 100,000 South Korean women committed suicide in 2008 while suicide rates in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries remained stable (source: World Health Organisation 2008).

Julie Gale, founder of Kids Free 2B Kids suggested calling for a protocol where these themes are not used. Just like newspapers have an ethic of not reporting suicides. She went on to say that the Advisory Group on Body Image set up by Youth Minister Kate Ellis in March 2009, should be looking into advertising which depicts acts of self harm such as suicide as glamorous and something to aspire to.

At the time of the launch she said “The Advisory Group will help to develop a new Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image, and provide advice to the Government on a national response.”

“Young Australians are telling us loud and clear that they are concerned about negative body image and the impact that it has on them, their friends and the community,” said Ms Ellis.

“This is a very complex issue and the Government believes the most affective approach is to work in partnership with the media, health sector, fashion industry and young people themselves to develop a national approach to tackle negative body image in a coordinated and targeted way.”

Melinda Tankard Reist, when talking about suicide and body image said “now Lindsay Lohan, soaked in blood, is showing us you can still sell yourself as a sex object while threatening to kill yourself.”

She added “self harm is the highest cause of hospital admission for girls aged 13 to 19 in Australia. Should it be treated so lightly? Should it be seen as something you do if you want to be seen as hot and sexy? Branding yourself with blood as some kind of artistic statement?”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. Melinda Tankard Reist. Kids Free 2B Kids (Julie Gale)

The Australian Institute of Family Studies has published What works with adolescents? – Family connections and involvement in interventions. It outlines information and key areas of concern for the healthy development of adolescents as they grow into adulthood.

During adolescence young people have to handle many things at once, it is an incredible time of growth on all fronts; physically, mentally and emotionally. They are no longer children but they are not adults either.

At some stage they may rebel against the constraints of family life, yet it is their family they turn to for security, comfort and reassurance. The power of the family should not be under estimated by parents, carers, teachers and medical practitioners. It is the safe haven that young people can retreat to when the world and all the changes that go with it get too much.

Families and family life is different for everyone and it doesn’t matter how the family is defined. It can be a collection of different people who live under the same roof.

The important thing is that for adolescents that sense of belonging is very important, it is the place from where they can draw their strength and get support, the place where they are accepted for who they are. It is the place they gain their resilience to the ups and downs of life.

As young people go through adolescence they experience interdependence rather than independence, they forge new and deeper relationships with family, friends, colleagues, partners and others.

Topics and issues that are covered in this publication include:

What is Family?
The family offers a “secure base” – safe place to return, emotional, psychological support (caring, connectedness, belonging).

There are five key elements to a secure parent/adolescent relationship, and these elements help build resilience in a young person so they can withstand that knocks in adult life:

1. Availability – helping young people to trust
2. Sensitivity – helping young people manage feelings/behaviours
3. Acceptance – building the self-esteem of the young person
4. Co-operation – helping young people to feel effective; and
5. Family membership – helping young people belong.

Source: Schofield & Beek (2009)

Mental Health
25% of young people aged 16-24 years old have suffered from some kind of depression or anxiety. It is a state that lasts for more than a few weeks, their moods do not life and their performance at school or work suffers.

Young people are more at risk of mental health issues if the following factors exist in their family set up:

• Physical and sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Attachment problems
• Parental mental illness
• Family conflict and stress, and
• Family breakdown.

It is vital that parents be involved in the resolution of any family issues if there is to be a successful outcome in childhood interventions.

Key family protective factors
Young people need enduring connections, if the family is not providing this then it is important to establish who else if offering it. There are 4 key family protective factors that are vital to a young person’s healthy development:

• Caring
• Connectedness
• Belonging, and
• Support.

Involving family – what works?
Improving communication skills
Promotion of family-based problem solving
Addressing negative and critical interactions
Building family resilience and hope
Helping families manage depression and contain suicide risk
Source: Carr, 2009; Larner, 2009

Who makes the decisions?
As young people approach adulthood there needs to be a balance between parental rights and the rights of minors. The desire of the young person to make personal decisions needs to be taken into account while recognising that teenagers are still developing cognitive and emotional skills needed to resolve issues that arise as they get older.

Communicating with adolescents
Building trust is critical.
There is often a focus on a literal response – but behaviours and actions are “talking”.
It is important to engage a young person, so they know they are being listened to.
“Respectful authority” – negotiate where you can, but be clear about the bottom line.
Honesty and straightforwardness are important when talking to adolescents.
Try to avoid direct questions, rather make them open ended.

Family connections
Who ‘surrounds’ the young person, and what is the nature of the relationships?
Explore peer group, sporting, cultural and community connections.
What are they “good at”? Think broadly.
What are the communication/behaviour patterns in the family?

Engaging the family
Parents may be difficult to engage in the therapeutic process.
They may fail to recognise or feel threatened by suggestions of possible role in the problem.
Therapy dilemma – “fixing” young person.
A “therapeutic alliance” with both adolescents and parents will bring the best results.

Conclusion
Understanding adolescent development is important but it is equally important to recognise the vital contribution that parents and the family base provide.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Australian Institute of Family Studies What works with adolescents?

At the centre of popular culture lies popular (pop) music, it has always been the music of the next generation, as young people come into their own they begin to express themselves through their clothes, interests, friends and music.

In modern times, the mass media has become a major instrument for the spread and dissemination of popular-culture to young people.

In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, John Storey equates pop culture with Mass Culture. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass produced for mass consumption. This definition can also be applied to today’s music industry and the phenomenon that encompasses it.

Popular music is present almost everywhere, and it is easily available through the radio, ipods, the Internet, and new technologies, allowing adolescents to hear it in diverse settings and situations, alone or shared with friends. They use music in their process of identity formation, and their music preference gives them a means to achieve group identity and integration into the youth culture.

Much of the music today no longer has sexual innuendos where the imagination joins the dots. Today the lyrics are graphic and vulgar, this is seen in songs by artists like Lady Gaga “I’m educated in sex, yes … I wanna take a ride on your disco stick”, or Katy Perry with “Sex on a beach. We get sand in our stilettos. We freak and we’re cheap”.

The content of pop music is highly sexualised and seems to know no bounds. Music by R ‘n’ B singer Rihanna is considered by some experts in the music industry to be soft porn.

Music producer Mike Stock (part of Stock, Aiken and Waterman) thinks children are at risk from the pop stars who peddle porn. He has condemned raunchy clips as “sexualising” children.

“The music industry has gone too far,” he said, “99% of the charts is R ‘n’ B music and 99% of that is soft pornography.

“Kids are being forced to grow up too young. Look at the videos, I wouldn’t necessarily want my young kids to watch them. It’s not about me being old fashioned. It’s about keeping values that are important in the modern world. These days you can’t watch modern stars like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga with a two-year-old.”

Research has found that nearly 42% of songs contain very explicitly sexual language. Lyrics revolve around topics such as sexual promiscuity, rape, death, homicide, suicide, and substance abuse. Rap music in particular often carries messages of violence, racism, homophobia and hatred towards women as well as drug, tobacco, and alcohol use – all of which are glorified.

Generation Next speaker and adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said the classification system needed to be toughed to stop the “skankification of this generation”.

“Mike Stock is right – it’s amazing that the Senate inquiry a few years ago actually recommended that the TV stations review the classifications, but when they redid their Code they didn’t change a single word,” he said.

Kids Free 2B Kids director Julie Gale said research has found sexualised video clips can impact on children’s self-esteem after just ten minutes exposure.

“The recommendation of the Senate inquiry two years ago should be followed through, they should not be in children’s prime viewing hours,” she said.

The Senate’s report Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media, published in June 2008 recommended that broadcasters review their classification of music videos specifically with regard to sexualising imagery.

Australian recording artist Kate Ceberano has also said artists needed to take more responsibility, “Artists need to be responsible for how they use sex to sell their products. There’s a fine line between beauty and hard core.”

In November 2009 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement on the “Impact of Music, Lyrics, and Music Videos on Children and Youth”

Research by the AAP showed that popular music effects schoolwork, social interactions, mood and affect, and particularly behaviour. Exposure to violence, sexual messages, sexual stereotypes, and use of substances of abuse in music videos might produce significant changes in behaviours and attitudes of young viewers.

It is estimated that over 60% of young people watch music videos on a regular basis, with 7% of these watching them before they go to school.

In studies performed to assess the reactions of adolescent boys exposed to violent rap music videos or sexist videos, participants reported an increased probability that they would engage in violence, a greater acceptance of the use of violence, and a greater acceptance of the use of violence against women than did participants who were not exposed to these videos. Researchers also found an association between music-video–watching and promiscuous sexual behaviours.

The American Academy for Pediatrics recommended that the music-video industry produce videos with more positive themes about relationships, racial harmony, drug avoidance, nonviolent conflict resolution, sexual abstinence, pregnancy prevention, and avoidance of promiscuity.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics. They Sydney Morning Herald

3.9% of the births in NSW to mothers under 20 years of age
12,326 teenagers gave birth in Australia in 2008

Teenage pregnancies in Australia are on the rise again with an increase of 15% since 2008. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics teenage birth rates in NSW seem to be concentrated around the greater western Sydney area and more rural areas in the west of the state. Data suggests that this co-insides with lower socio-economic areas of Sydney. The Greater Western Area Health Service has the highest rate of teenage mothers, recording 8.1% of NSW births.

Experts are concerned as they see this as an indication that teenagers are becoming sexually active earlier. This can put them at risk of not only unplanned pregnancies but also sexually transmissible diseases, many young people do not engage in protected sex.
 
Dr Patricia Weerakoon, co-ordinator of the University of Sydney’s graduate program in sexual health said ”The rates of sexually transmissible infections in young people are rising because they are having unprotected sex. That is also reflected in the rising number of teenagers having babies.”

Maggie Hamilton, author of What’s Happening to our Girls? and Generation Next speaker is concerned that at such a young age, adolescents are not emotionally equipped to deal with the intricacies of an intimate relationship or the long term commitment a baby brings.

“Girls see teenage pregnancy as a way of giving themselves the nurture they’ve missed out on. For those short months of pregnancy, the attention is on them. Their expectations about having a baby are so unrealistic,” she said. They go for instant gratification without considering the long term consequences of their actions; an unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy.

While many young people are reaching puberty before their teenage years, their brains do not fully develop until they are in their late teens or early 20s.

“Their hormones are saying they are ready to become sexually active but their brains won’t fully mature for another few years,” Dr Weerakoon said. “Young teenagers do not have a well-developed control mechanism which is why they engage in risky behaviour. They don’t think about the long-term consequences of their behaviour.”

Many, like Associate Professor Juliet Richters, of the University of NSW feel the answer is to provide better sex education and access to more information about sexual health in general.

“Australia is only doing medium well in terms of providing support and sex education to young women, the 14, 15, 16-year-old age group who become pregnant tend to be at risk … A lot of them don’t necessarily want to have the baby,” She said.

Another possible solution is to support teenage mothers so they can finish their education and to this end many schools now run programs for young mothers.

The NSW Education Department has made the successful young mothers program implemented at Plumpton High School in western Sydney available to all high schools.

The Burnside State High School in Queensland also runs a course for young mothers so they can finish their schooling. The Supporting Teenagers Education Mothering Mentoring (STEMM) program is designed to provide support and understanding for pregnant girls and young mums in a safe, non-judgemental environment.

In Partnership with Education Queensland, TAFE and the University of the Sunshine Coast, girls are able to engage with learning pathways towards certified outcomes.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: The Sun Herald

Nearly 4 million people nationwide watched the Ben Cousins documentary Such is Life – The troubled times of Ben Cousins. The program detailed his public life as a footballer while leading the secret life of a drug addict. This duplicitous lifestyle finally came to an end when he was arrested in Perth in 2007.

Paul Dillon, author of Teenagers, Alcohol and Drugs and Generation Next speaker, asked the question “How can you really answer a question about the harms associated with drug use when incredibly successful men in peak physical condition admit to regular drug use?”

The documentary was graphic in both its discussion of drug use and footage of Ben under the influence of drugs. At one point Ben says “There would be a time and a place for speed, there would be a time and a place for ecstasy, cocaine was my drug of choice, no question, but Valium played a huge part in that and Xanax played a huge part in that.”

Paul Dillon addressed the problem of profiling public figures that are known drug users, “The major problem is the message that these admissions send to young people. Although many would imagine that stories of famous people using drugs and experiencing a range of problems would discourage teenagers from going down the same path, in many cases just the opposite happens.  Unfortunately the only message that some young people pick up is that these celebrities have ‘made it through to the other side’ and continue to lead very glamorous and successful lives.”

Later in the program Cousins says “I would train and f***ing train and obsess and play good footy and the thing that would get me through those tough moments, those tough days, … was I knew at the end … I was going to absolutely annihilate and launch into as much drugs as I could.”

Paul Dillon went onto to say “When you look at the messages that we give young people about drugs they are usually negative, warning about the risks associated with their use. Drugs destroy lives – people who use them lose their jobs, their families and are very unhealthy. This just doesn’t match what they see when the latest rock star tells all on a TV chart show, or a famous sportsman has been caught doing the ‘wrong thing’.”

He added “Even if they did have a bad time there for a while, they certainly don’t look like they’re suffering too much at the moment. These cases also cause young people to question the legal issues around drug use when they see celebrities who are caught with illicit sub stances getting off with a slap on the wrist.”

Although the documentary showed Ben Cousins’s drug use, it failed to address the underlying issues of why he became addicted, or explore  the internal changes and revelations he went through during the process of ‘becoming clean’.

The Sun Herald reported that “Cousins’ pain was palpable, but there was precious little sense of him realising he’d long before foregone the right to expect anything else by virtue of his own betrayals.”

Paul Dillon commented that “There are physical, psychological and, importantly, social effects that can arise as a result of using alcohol and other drugs. In some cases, the use of drugs may not result in any major physical effects that anyone can see, but the mental health repercussions may be immense. In other cases, the physical impacts of long-term drug use may be obvious.”

After the program aired the Sydney Morning Herald conducted an online survey, in which 16,054 people participated, 57% of the respondents felt he was “smug and full of excuses”.

Danny Weidler, a Channel Nine sports reporter said that his motivation for the tell all documentary could have been financial rather than conscience driven.  He is not earning the big bucks anymore and he is about to retire. “Channel Seven paid $800,000 up front for the program; other networks had knocked it back – the feeling was that it wasn’t sending the right message,” he wrote.

Paul Dillon advised parents and teachers to make “sure the information we give young people is balanced, accurate and credible is crucial. Acknowledging that not everyone is going to experience the same problems will enable us to explain why some people appear to get by unscathed. At the same time, no matter who you are, there are problems – some you may not be able to observe by watching the nightly news, but they are there.”

For more information on issues related to the use of drugs and alcohol go to Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia (DARTA).

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Paul Dillon – DARTA (Drug Alcohol Research and Training Australia). Sydney Morning Herald