A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
I’m really exploring the concept of Student Voice at the moment. Both in my writing and in my work with schools. Last week I was invited back to the school where I last taught in 2012. I was part of a panel for an evening that the Year 12s had put on to discuss some [...]
Political controversies often use the suffix “gate“ to embellish their significance. In pop psychology, the equivalent is the made-up “syndrome”, which involves a combination of symptoms and circumstances to explain behaviours and reactions. The latest is “rushing women’s syndrome”, which former swimmer Lisa Curry used to explain her hormonal shifts leading to her divorce. But [...]
"This is a major concern. Antipsychotics are strong drugs with serious side effects such as obesity, diabetes and sedation, and these tend to be worse in young people. Despite this, these drugs are increasingly used in situations where other treatments may be safer and more appropriate," said Karanges. Use of the main ADHD medication Ritalin [...]
A single injection of Botox, which is typically used to improve the appearance of facial wrinkles, may be an effective treatment for depression. Investigators at the Hannover Medical School in Germany found that treating the facial muscles involved in emotion with Botox eases symptoms of depression."Our emotions are expressed by facial muscles, which in turn [...]
The decision could undermine the federal government's recent decision to allocate $245.3 million to continue running the chaplaincy program for another five years. That funding was intended specifically for schools to hire faith-based chaplains rather than social workers. Under the program, 3700 schools are eligible for up to $72,000 funding to employ chaplains. In a [...]
Although it is perfectly possible to be both stupid and racist, only someone who hasn’t personally experienced it could be ignorant enough to claim racism not only doesn’t exist but is really just an expression of stupidity, and hence we should tolerate it as fact of life. And yet, the internet is littered with the opinions of [...]
Outgoing Labor Senator Louise Pratt has used one of her final parliamentary speeches to call for the abolition of the school chaplaincy program, saying it is harming vulnerable gay and lesbian children. Senator Pratt said a survey found anti-gay chaplains had driven schoolchildren to self-harm and had told them to “pray the gay away”, claims [...]
Hardly a week passes without some sensational news about brain scans unleashing yet another secret of our cognitive faculties. Very recently I stumbled upon the news that according to recent research neuroscientists can tell, depending on your brain responses, whether you and your significant one will still be together in a few years: “You might hide it from [...]
It’s interesting isn’t it? We often talk about approaches to student wellbeing in school, without ever really chatting to students themselves. Indeed I’ve spoken to many students in schools all over Australia, and whilst they are aware of phrases like resilience, social & emotional learning and/or wellbeing, not too many can actually articulate what those [...]
Teenagers who whittle away their time listening to music are far more likely to suffer from depression than those who spend more time consuming other media, including books, say the authors of a new study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The researchers called 106 adolescents - 46 of whom had been diagnosed [...]
