A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
When her daughter Abbey began suffering severe mental health issues at the age of 14, Pippa Beveridge desperately sought help from Western Australia's mental health system. As she found out over the next two years, that support was not easy to come by. "We would go to [Princess Margaret Hospital] and wait for hours," Ms [...]
Even before you download an app to help you meditate, or to manage your depression, it's speaking to you. Apps' marketing often implies that everyday stresses should be seen as mental health issues, and that you're on your own (with the help of the app, of course) to fix whatever is wrong with you. These [...]
As a family member, encouraging a loved one to seek mental health treatment is one of the thinnest tightropes we can walk. “I’m fine!” “I’m not the crazy one - you are!” “I don’t need help!” Too often, encouraging a loved one to seek mental health treatment turns into a stalemate with long-lasting hard feelings, [...]
A recent study has found that positive parenting is related to certain characteristics of both the mother and the child; and when controlling for maternal factors, only child’s affection (e.g., infant sharing positive feelings and expressions with mother), and general cognitive abilities (e.g., basic problem solving, language abilities) are related to positive parenting. The study also found that girls received more positive [...]
The Disrupted Childhood Report explains commonly-used strategies, and highlights how automated technology both leverages and reinforces human instinct, in order to trigger habits and behaviours. Variously called ‘reward loops’, ‘captology’, ‘sticky’, ‘dwell features’ and ‘extended use strategies’, persuasive design strategies are deliberately baked into digital services and products in order to capture and hold users’ [...]
As a trainer, I consider it a personal failure if I'm unable to motivate a client to make important health and lifestyle changes. Sure, there are people who just don't care, but I can spot them from 100 metres away. I'm not talking about them. I'm referring to the clients who really want to lose [...]
A new report adds to mounting evidence that people with mental illness and psychosocial disability are not being well served by the NDIS. The report, ‘When the NDIS came to the ACT – A story of Hope and Disruption in the Mental Health Sector’, looks at whether the introduction of the NDIS in the ACT [...]
Young people in regional and rural areas are crying out for more mental health services. Data from Mission Australia’s Youth Survey 2016 shows one in four young people in areas such as Dubbo have a probable serious mental illness. About 52 per cent of young people said they had a problem which needed professional help [...]
When it comes to underage drinking, how often a teenager drinks rather than how much they drink has been found to be a bigger indicator of problems later in life. According to a new study, teens who drink at least weekly before the age 17 are up to three times more likely to binge, drink-drive, [...]
OPINION No parent likes the idea of their kids using drugs. Drugs sit at the top of the list of experiences that we pray our kids will NEVER do, like dropping out of school or getting a tattoo. That’s why, when I saw the thin blue line that indicated my son’s impending arrival, I didn’t [...]
