A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Divorce was never supposed to happen to us or to our kids. It takes us off the path we envisioned for our families. Once we get through the initial shock and awe that follows the divorce, divorcees struggle to define the new family relationships, including the ones with our ex-spouses. We are also left to [...]
When it comes to raising our kids, less may be more. Way more. In fact, learning to selectively ignore our kids not only relieves parents from the joyless cycle of nagging, but helps our kids to learn. That’s the premise behind a new book:Ignore It! How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and [...]
Suicide and self-harm remain taboo topics in schools, despite the fact youth suicide has reached a ten year high. Recent statistics show around eight children and young people die by suicide each week in Australia. Around one in ten self-harm during their teenage years. This loss of life means that the topic is too important not to talk about, but [...]
The video gaming industry has transitioned from a group of backyard innovators to an industry of multi-billion dollar companies, hiring psychologists, neuroscientists and marketing experts to turn customers into addicts. The latest trend is the creation of "whales", people so addicted to games that they spend their entire life savings to keep playing. But the video gaming industry, [...]
Every day, at least one case of under-age sexting lands on the desk at the Child Protection Investigation Unit in Rockhampton, central Queensland. Sexting is the sending, receiving, or forwarding, of sexually explicit messages, photographs or videos via mobile phone. It falls to Detective Sergeant Angus Kerr and his team to handle these cases, and he said [...]
In Australia, three children die from cancer each week. But doctors and researchers say they have a "game-changing" plan to drive the death rate down to zero. The Children's Cancer Institute and the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children's Hospital announced on Monday the launch of a national clinical trial, in which scientists and doctors will [...]
Doctors have been using caffeine for pre-term babies since the 1990s, and new research shows the benefits last for years. There’s nothing like a good slug of caffeine to keep you on your toes, but it’s probably the last thing you’d want to give to a baby. Yet that’s exactly what doctors routinely use to [...]
We all want the best for our kids, and these days there is a growing chorus of voices telling us that this means pushing them to work harder. Just about every aspect of a child or teen’s life these days is a competition. But to excel at school, sports, the arts, spelling, debating, social media, even [...]
Combatting loneliness needs good coaching from parents. It’s worth asking ourselves as parents whether we should be worried about the number of friends our children have. Increasingly, I hear parents complaining that their child seems isolated, or doesn’t have “real” friends that they spend enough time with. Indeed, a Childtrends report found that up to 30% of teens [...]
Christina’s sister was 28 when she was formally diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, though Christina, who asked that we not use her last name to protect her family’s privacy, says there had been signs of the disorder for years. Beginning in her teens, Christina’s sister, now 30, struggled with eating disorders, self-harm, addiction and suicide [...]
