A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Smartphones. Facebook. Reality TV. It’s easy to look at our changing world and come to the following conclusion: we’re all getting stupid. That’s not the case. In fact, over the last century, the average Australian IQ has dramatically increased. Compared to Australians who lived 100 years ago, we’re a nation of geniuses. But now, some [...]
We know from new research that children whose mothers are depressed may respond differently to stress, have altered immunity and be at greater risk of psychological disorders. This work adds to the body of research showing children can be affected in negative and long-term ways by their mothers’ mental ill-health. But what about dads? Men’s [...]
I care deeply about young people and have done since I too was a moody, often confused adolescent who made some big, sometimes life-threatening, mistakes. The development of the physical body together with sexual urges, novelty seeking behaviours, rapidly changing moods and emotional states make adolescence a very interesting time. The developing pre-frontal lobe affects [...]
Young people “laugh” at vague warnings issued by the police or politicians about the dangers of drugs even as five of their peers have died at music festivals in the past five months. Paul Dillon, the founder of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, said it was incredibly difficult to change people’s minds about [...]
When Celina Pereira watches videos of people slurping food and drinks, tapping their nails and whispering into a microphone, she breaks out into goosebumps and a chill travels down her spine. It might sound bizarre, but she's experiencing ASMR – an autonomous sensory meridian response – and she's not alone. There are now more than [...]
The video showed the woman in a pink off-the-shoulder top, sitting on a bed, smiling a convincing smile. It was her face. But it had been seamlessly grafted, without her knowledge or consent, onto someone else's body: a young pornography actress, just beginning to disrobe for the start of a graphic sex scene. A crowd [...]
If you feel you consistently fail at your New Year’s resolutions, you are not alone. Despite our good intentions, we’re pretty poor at changing our own behaviour. We continue to smoke, eat or drink too much, and exercise too little, all of which affect our health and well-being. In trying to change behaviour (including our [...]
At a school in Perth, a group of teen girls is sitting in a circle, practising breathing techniques. One. Two. Three. Four. "I've only got a couple of minutes with them,'' a school counsellor tells me later. Why? Because if this cohort can't learn to slow-breathe in two minutes, they'll consider they've failed. Failed breathing? [...]
Three years after the worst day of his life, Alpha Cheng picks his words with care. The 31-year old schoolteacher speaks out – sometimes. He talks about what he knows: racism, his friends and what happened to his father. In October 2015, Curtis Cheng was leaving work at Parramatta police station when he was shot [...]
Research published this year suggests one in seven teenagers have sent explicit texts and one in four have received them. It prompted the Australian Medical Association to overhaul its youth outreach program, Dr YES (Youth Education Session), to include more up-to-date information about sexting and health. The program involves medical students visiting high schools for [...]
