A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Mental illness is more common than most people think. Around one out of every five adults will deal with some form of mental illness in their lifetime. If you’re that one person, trying to make friends might seem about as appealing as pulling your teeth out, but a good group of friends can also be [...]
Perhaps Facebook should carry a health warning. A study has revealed that the children who spend more time on online social networks feel less happy in almost all aspects of their lives. The research by a team of economists at the University of Sheffield, to be presented at this week’s Royal Economic Society annual conference [...]
Mental disorders are currently defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which includes hundreds of distinct diagnostic categories, but a new study we worked on suggests we could do better. Each category in the DSM has a checklist of criteria. If you meet “enough” (often, just over half) of these criteria, [...]
It is the most common mental health condition in Australia and when you're in the grip of it, anxiety can seem unmanageable. But its bark is often worse than its bite and simple changes can go a long way in taming the beast. Our diet is one, often overlooked way, understandably perhaps because we tend [...]
The vast majority of teenagers say they experience “emotional distress” after starting secondary school but claim teachers don’t have the skills to help them, research has found. Four in every five 12- to 16-year-olds in the survey said they felt they had mental health problems but just one in 20 would turn to a teacher [...]
Thirty-nine Australian universities will now individually release the findings of a national research project on sexual assault and harassment on campus. The “Respect. Now. Always.” project, launched in February 2016, has involved two phases: an open call for submissions from the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) an online survey with a randomly selected sample of [...]
When we think about Google and health, we usually think about patients searching online for health information. But you may be surprised that some doctors Google you. An Australian survey of how doctors use social media found about 16% (about one in six) had searched for online information about a patient, with roughly similar results [...]
On first impression bipolar disorder is easy to understand. It’s a disorder where a person experiences extreme mood changes, highs and lows, with periods of normality in between. But, when we look further into the disorder, or we hear people talk about their experiences, it starts to get a little more complex, and the terms [...]
When children are chronically anxious, even the most well-meaning parents can fall into a negative cycle and, not wanting a child to suffer, actually exacerbate the youngster’s anxiety. It happens when parents, anticipating a child’s fears, try to protect her from them. Here are pointers for helping children escape the cycle of anxiety. 1. The [...]
While being diagnosed with a serious mental health condition like schizophrenia can have devastating consequences for patients, many don’t realise how much their physical health may suffer too. The life expectancy for people with schizophrenia is around 10 – 25 years less than the general population. They also have two to three times the risk [...]
