A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Since the introduction of national tobacco prevention programmes in the 1980s, Australia has experienced declining rates of youth smoking, with the latest figures showing that only 3.4% of 12-17 year-olds smoke daily. Across the wider population we have seen a dramatic shift in the way most Australians regard smoking. Recently, however, novel ways of smoking have come onto the scene which challenge some of the [...]
In 1980, 11.2 million people used a mobile phone. In 1990, 12.4 million people used a mobile phone. In 2002, 1.2 billion people had a mobile phone… And in 2014, 4.55 billion people used a mobile phone. That’s over 69% of the world population. We use them not only to speak to one another, but [...]
We should be worried about our teenagers. The scary facts are that one in six 12-24 year olds think “women should know their place”, and one in three think that ‘exerting control over someone isn’t a form of violence’. These are some of the findings from a survey of over 3000 young men and women, which also [...]
Often masked as a health-kick a new form of the eating disorder, anorexia, is manifesting itself in teenagers. When John and Julie Armstrong's 12-year-old son, Jed, told them that he wanted to get fit in the summer of 2014, neither thought anything of it. A keen footballer, Jed designed a regime of exercise for himself [...]
Older generations mean well and are trying to find the answers to a growing problem. But when it comes to young people, it is hard to know what is going on in our minds. When there is already so much resistance from young people to any government-designed idea, it is not going to work. The [...]
Entry to prison presents an opportunity to identify mental illnesses and provide treatment that will continue after release. Photo: nando viciano/Shutterstock, used by The Conversation People with mental illnesses are greatly overrepresented in our prisons. Prisoners are two to three times as likely as those in the community to have a mental illness [...]
1. It’s not your fault and you are not a bad parent. Powerful evolutionary forces make us instinctively move away from people who hurt us. Kids and teens hurt us. They hurt us big time. Put that hurt together with the amount of time, energy and stuff we give our kids – this means resentment [...]
We are, right now, in the middle of a revolution in our thinking about the developing brain. We have always known it was important to nurture the very young but now we know why. A burgeoning number of new technologies, such as MRI, PET and rainbow [...]
Photo: Cole Bennetts, from Sydney Morning Herald Jaike Digney, 18, has been homeless since he was 14. In that time he has been on and off the streets, in and out of refuges - "pretty much every one in Sydney", he says. For six months he lived in a fire escape [...]
There are a number of ways you can help to end sexual violence. From being aware of the risks to trusting your instincts and stepping in when a friend needs your help, you may be able to help prevent a sexual assault from occurring. So what can we do today? Everyone -- friends, family, bystanders [...]
