A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Flickr Images A teacher’s role has always been much more than simply imparting the fundamental skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. In any one day a teacher might also play the role of counsellor, friend, mediator, life coach, guardian or confidant. Working directly with our future generations of adults, society places a large [...]
Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified 34 neural factors that predict adolescent alcohol consumption. The list, based upon complex algorithms analyzing data from neuropsychological testing and neuroimaging studies, was significantly more accurate —approximately 74 percent — than demographic information alone. A mix of social, psychological and biological mechanisms [...]
Encounter Youth In Australia, alcohol advertisements are not permitted on TV during times that children are likely to be watching, usually defined as between 7:00am and 8:30pm[1]. There is however, one glaring exception to this rule: alcohol advertising in sport. As long as it is during a sport broadcast, alcohol is free to [...]
Encounter Youth As a parent of two young children, I have become increasingly aware of how many questions parents have, as well as the countless conflicting opinions on how to raise a child well. My children are not teenagers yet, so I have not yet had to deal with the delicate topic of [...]
When bringing up the subject of drug use in Australia, people’s minds often go to ‘the usual suspects’: alcohol, cannabis and ecstasy. These three drugs usually get the most attention, and because of heightened media exposure (currently), methamphetamine (including ice) often gets a mention too. However, Australian’s use of all these drugs is either steady, [...]
“What’s the safe age to start drinking?” This is a very common question that students, teachers and parents ask when talking about the risks of drinking. Whilst the legal age for drinking in Australia is 18 years, there are many different opinions about when and how it is safest for a person to try alcohol [...]
Two years ago, Melbourne man Jarrod was aged in his early 30s. From a middle class background, he had been privately educated, achieved a university degree, married and had a daughter. He was an IT executive and worked long hours, but had plenty of friends to spend time with on the weekends. He was also [...]
More than half of female university students in Australia are skipping meals before a big night out so they can save calories for alcohol, an Adelaide study has found. The study, by PhD student and researcher Alissa Knight at the University of South Australia, looks into the social phenomena dubbed "drunkorexia". Ms Knight said drunkorexia [...]
Most people will encounter alcohol and/or other drugs during the teenage years, either through friends at school, at home with family or through TV or other media channels. Teachers can have a significant influence on young people and the extent to which students feel they are part of a school community. The conversations that teachers [...]
I’m not from Australia originally, but since arriving I’ve come to embrace this continent’s unique sport of Aussie Rules Football. I enjoyed a Friday night game at a friend’s house recently, and watched Channel 7’s post-game Friday Front Bar for the first time. Filmed in front of a live audience at a Richmond Hotel, it [...]
