A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Last night I was watching TV and saw a news advertisement about young people and drug use. Over the top of an image or a group of young people was superimposed the words One third of all young people have used an illegal drug. That statistic sounds pretty scary for parents, and it is – [...]
The Government has released new guidelines which warn against the use of drugs to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children. The guidelines, which originally stated in 1997 that medication was a suitable treatment for medication, have been changed to instead advise that "Medication should not be used as first-line treatment for ADHD in [...]
It is important to tell your children that if they are in doubt, they should not hesitate to call for medical assistance. It’s hard to be too specific here as it’s not always easy to say what constitutes a ‘medical emergency’. Young people need to know that they won’t get in trouble for calling an [...]
Generation Next Brisbane is on tomorrow! Speakers including Dr Michael Carr-Gregg and Paul Dillon will talk on topics including drugs and alcohol, depression, cybersafety and sexualisation to a sold out auditorium in the University of Queensland. If you've missed out you may like to subscribe to the newsletter to keep up with our regular updates [...]
The results of the largest annual survey of young people in Australia were released yesterday by Mission Australia. The National Survey of Young Australians 2009 obtained the views of almost 48,000 young people across Australia and found that the young people rank drugs, suicide and body image as the most concerning issues they face. The [...]
Australia seems to be in the grip of a teen binge drinking Ebola. The contagion slips insidiously from family to family, school to school, suburb to suburb. You can't see it or smell it but it burrows in to teenage psyches and then roars into life. The public health doctors have no cure. They've thrown [...]
Calls for tighter underage drinking laws have been made by drug body The Australian Drug Foundation, who believe the current laws allowing underage drinking on private property without parental consent are too lax. The foundation proposed that adults should only be allowed to provide alcohol to minors with their parent’s consent, the adults should only [...]
In many cases, drinking too much alcohol will make you sick and you will stop drinking. There are many old wives’ tales about why someone vomits after drinking, but the real reason is quite simple- you’ve been poisoned. Your brain actually has specialised poison-control cells that detect when you have had too much alcohol and [...]
We can’t forget that not all young people are the same, and this is particularly true when it comes to attitudes and values of around drugs. Even when it comes to alcohol use, young people are not one homogenous group. When I talk to groups of teenagers I usually divide them into three key categories, [...]
Over the years I have attended a number of Schoolies Week celebrations and although there have always been incidents, usually linked to excessive alcohol consumption, for the most part I have found the young people to be very well behaved and reasonably sensible. The most concerning aspect of the event is the social pressure on [...]
