A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Sometimes it feels that our culture has nearly reached a saturation point in its focus on the pursuit of happiness: thousands of books, blogs, and websites purport to help us get there, with techniques ranging from the empirically validated (exercise, mindfulness, gratitude) to the rather murky (which often involve paying someone something.) But more and more research is starting [...]
More than 130 Year 8 Benalla students are ready to fight mental health and youth suicide with the official launch of the Benalla Live4Life program. On 26 March, at the Drill Hall Community Activity Centre, the Live4Life education and prevention program led by the Council will be in full swing, with all Year 8 and 11 Benalla students [...]
A lack of essential nutrients is known to contribute to the onset of poor mental health in people suffering from anxiety and depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and ADHD. Nutritional psychiatry is a growing discipline that focuses on the use of food and supplements to provide these essential nutrients as part of an integrated or alternative [...]
An honest chat with children about healthy, consensual sex could not come any sooner. Time and again, society fails to educate young people — particularly young women — about sexual health. What’s more, in the United States, abstinence-only sex education is the rule, not the exception — and studies show it actually hurts kids as they grow into adolescence. [...]
Don't allow yourself to be limited by your depression. Yes, you are depressed. I know that place way too well, and I work my butt off to stay out of the D-zone. Here are ten little things that will give you a lift. You may not think you have the energy to do them, but, [...]
It may be time to invest in some blackout curtains, according to new research. A study published recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology found a strong association between even low-level nighttime light exposure and depressive symptoms among elderly adults. The researchers measured nighttime light levels in the bedrooms of 863 elderly Japanese adults by placing ceiling-facing light [...]
Fake Instagram accounts, often referred to as “finstas” or “spam accounts”, have become the norm for many teens – but their reasoning for creating these is not as sinister as you think. I’ve spoken with 50 Australian families – including 118 children aged 1-18 – about technology use, and am currently conducting a follow-up qualitative [...]
Resilience is one of those buzzwords that was dropped in the lap of parents and educators a few years ago and has sat there since like a puppy – squirming, whining and demanding our attention. It’s adorable and you’d definitely like to keep it, but hold it too tightly and it will jump right out [...]
The year 2012 was the moment our kids lost their childhood. Recent research out of the United States reveals a sharp decrease in wellbeing among adolescents from 2012 onwards — the year when smartphone ownership became commonplace among teens. Using survey data from 1.1 million young people, the researchers found that adolescents who spent more time on [...]
When I was in fifth grade I wrote in my journal one day that I was upset about not having any real friends at school. My teacher reminded us, like she did every day, that our black-and-white composition notebooks were for our eyes only. She would read them only if we asked her to. That [...]
