How empathy and engagement enhance the placebo effect
Research shows efficacy in certain people may be linked to genetics, says Muiris Houston Source: Medical Matters: How empathy and engagement enhance the placebo effect
July 2015
Helping Students Tackle Bullying: 6 Tips for The Classroom
Bullying remains a troubling issue in our schools. In 2013, one in three Australian children aged 10-11 reported being bullied (Lodge & Baxter, 2013). Children who are bullied at school are at a greater risk of experiencing serious psychological problems later in life (Ronning et al 2009, Rigby 2015). Children who engage in bullying behaviour are more likely to become involved in criminal activities as adults (Ttofi et al. 2012, Rigby, 2015). This far reaching impact is too great for [...]
Young People and Apps – What Are They Using Now?!
It is impossible to give you a definitive list of every app you need to be aware of as the list is seemingly endless. What is popular today, becomes oh so yesterday within the space of a month. Some apps are quite OK if used correctly but if used incorrectly cause harm. The best way [...]
Eating Disorders: Promoting Health and Wellbeing in your School
Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that are associated with significant physical complications. Eating disorders not only involve considerable psychological impairment and distress, but they are also associated with major wide-ranging and serious medical complications, which can affect every major organ in the body. Eating disorders occur in both men and women, young and old, [...]
The Mask You Live In: Challenging Harmful Cultural Messages about Masculinity
One of the most moving experiences I have had as a speaker addressing young people around the country took place about a year ago when a Year 11 student in a WA secondary school stood to his feet during the discussion time following my talk on how our culture shaped boys views of themselves in negative ways. Visibly distressed, this young man recounted that his brother [...]
How to Help Young People with Autism Stay on in Education after School
Fewer than one in four young people with autism continue their education after school. Too often, colleges and universities are just not equipped or well-enough prepared to support young people with autism to move into further or higher education. There are also problems with their transition from school. Even where schools do provide support for [...]
The Psychology of Fear
Fear is a survival tactic that is built into our species. You are all familiar with the fight or flight syndrome, and that is where your fear originates. In the early days of mankind, the human body's fight or flight syndrome was meant to protect you from the dangers in your environment. Today, however, your [...]
Teaching Sex Education Misses the Point Unless You Teach Boys Not to Be Sexist
I am a mother of sons and the thought of them growing up within a culture of rampant male sexual entitlement terrifies me. Right now they are six and seven – still innocent, still able to see their female peers as fellow humans – but as adolescence approaches, I fear that a deluge of misogyny will [...]
Lives Grow Longer, and Health Care’s Challenges Change
Getting a blood sugar test at a mobile clinic near a New Delhi slum. Chronic health problems like diabetes are on the rise among India's population, even as there has been success against more immediately life-threatening ailments. Credit Prakash Singh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images As illness patterns worldwide shift toward chronic, [...]
I’m 15 and There’s a Simple Reason I’m Not on Social Media
The physio digs her thumbs into the crook of my shoulder. "So when you're sitting on the computer at home on Twitter or Facebook, you can do these neck exercises." Like many adults, this physio has immediately made the presumption that because I'm a teenager, I obviously spend all of my time huddled in a [...]