Mental Health & Wellbeing

Inside Europe’s Biggest Sex Offenders’ Prison

Europe's biggest prison for sex offenders is in Nottinghamshire. How does it try to rehabilitate the inmates, asks Rex Bloomstein. "Whatton's a great leveller," says Lynn Saunders, governor of HMP Whatton, the largest prison for adult male sex offenders not just in the UK, but in Europe. "We've got everybody here you could imagine," she [...]

The Feel-Good Gene: Those with Naturally High Levels of Anandamide Less Anxious and Fearful

In Australia, anxiety is even more common than depression. In fact, about one in four of us suffer from it. The general belief is that stress or circumstances cause it. But, this might not necessarily be the case. Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, says some of us have a feel-good [...]

The Key to Our Happiness Is Connection, Not Competition

There are two different sides to human nature. Both are important, but the balance between them has huge implications for our wellbeing, culture and future. One side of our nature is self-interested. This is our in-built instinct to do whatever we can to survive and thrive, often at the expense of others. The other side [...]

Need to Interrupt Cycle of Family Violence – Report

Instant jail terms, or flash incarceration, for perpetrators who do not comply with court orders is one of a range of recommendations to break the cycle of family violence outlined in a major new RMIT University report. Australian of the Year and anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty launched the report in Melbourne today. The RMIT [...]

Controversial Paedophile Support Program to Launch in South Australia in a National First

A controversial program that offers paedophiles friendship and support in an effort to reduce offending is being trialled in Australia for the first time. I appreciate not everybody will want to spend their Saturday morning having a coffee with an offender, but I think we need to get over that. QUT criminologist, Dr Kelly Richards [...]

Medicating Women’s Feelings

More Americans are on psychiatric medications than ever before, and in my experience they are staying on them far longer than was ever intended. Sales of antidepressants and antianxiety meds have been booming in the past two decades, and they’ve recently been outpaced by an antipsychotic, Abilify, that is the No. 1 seller among all [...]

Depression Impairs Working Memory: Negative Thoughts Leave You with ‘No Room to Think’

Negative thoughts crowd your mind, making you feel as though you’re spiraling into an unescapable hole. When you’re depressed, you constantly feel like you’re trapped and there’s no way out. This may be because depression can control your mind and mood to the point that it will leave you with little room to think of [...]

What Should Parents Do if Their Child is Bullied at School?

So when parents findut their child is being bullied, they are right to be concerned. But what exactly should they do about it? Should they tell the school, approach the parents of the other child, or just let their child deal with it? It can be difficult to weigh up the sometimes conflicting advice given [...]

Sex Abuse by Children Against Children a Growing and Significant Problem, Royal Commission Hears

Sexual abuse by children against children is a growing and significant problem in out-of-home care, a royal commission has heard. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse began hearings into the incidence of abuse against children in out-of-home care, which included care in government and non-government-run residential facilities, foster care and kinship [...]

Sex Abuse Victim Lashes Out at Church Elders at Royal Commission

A man who was repeatedly molested by his youth pastor lashed out at church elders, accusing them of using the child sexual abuse royal commission to "justify their failings and minimise their responsibilities". In a statement read out to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, the man, now aged in his mid-20s, [...]

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