A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Becky Freeman, University of Sydney This year the Australian government is introducing a series of measures to restrict the availability of vapes, starting today. The new reforms address loopholes in the current laws that allow easy access to highly addictive, flavoured, cheap, and harmful vaping products that are marketed to kids. Vaping products will still [...]
Alexander Larcombe, Telethon Kids Institute If you asked me what’s in e-cigarettes, disposable vapes or e-liquids, my short answer would be “we don’t fully know”. The huge and increasing range of products and flavours on the market, changes to ingredients when they are heated or interact with each other, and inadequate labelling make this a [...]
Michelle Jongenelis, The University of Melbourne You’re driving your teen home from school when they open up to you about their vaping. What started off as an occasional puff of an e-cigarette has turned into something more serious. “I was curious and just wanted to try it,” they say. “All my friends were doing it [...]
Katinka van de Ven, University of New England; Alison Ritter, UNSW Sydney, and Erin Cunningham, Indigenous Knowledge Alcohol and other drug treatment in Australia is generally only provided for individuals, often away from their families. Treatment can include withdrawal from the substance, counselling and residential rehabilitation. All these treatments work to improve health and [...]
Joshua Trigg, Flinders University and Billie Bonevski, Flinders University You’ve dropped your daughter off at her friend’s house and while cleaning the car, you find what looks like a USB drive on the passenger seat. It’s a disposable vape. You’ve seen the news. Vapes or e-cigarettes are harmful yet increasingly popular with people her age. [...]
Nicole Lee, Curtin University and Steven Bothwell, University of Newcastle The South Australian government is planning to roll out a new mass media campaign about the impact of using methamphetamine, including crystal methamphetamine or “ice” and powdered methamphetamine or “speed”. The campaign includes warning messages on pizza boxes – presumably because young people are the [...]
Christina Watts, University of Sydney; Becky Freeman, University of Sydney, and Sam Egger, University of Sydney Teen vaping has been in the news, with reports of rapidly increasing use and illegal sales of e-cigarettes. As a Four Corners documentary on ABC TV earlier this year showed, parents and schools are struggling to manage this swift [...]
In this episode: The effects of 2020 on young people Emerging new trends in substance use/abuse: Vaping, 'nanging', cannabis and more Implications for schools and communities How to help young people Host: Andrew Fuller, Clinical psychologist and family therapist, speaker and creator of Learning Strengths Guest: Paul Dillon, Founder of Drug and Alcohol Research [...]
During FebFast (no alcohol all this month, raising money for charity), it’s sobering to realise that one in six Australians drink enough booze to put them at lifetime risk of alcohol-related disease. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) also has data showing a quarter of the population aged more than 14 drink at a [...]
Wing See Yuen, UNSW and Amy Peacock, UNSW Alcohol-related blackouts aren’t good for anybody’s health, but they are particularly dangerous for young people. Our recent research found blackouts are common once young people start drinking. At age 14, nearly one in ten adolescents who drank alcohol in the past year had a blackout. By age [...]
