A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
This information from Parentline helps carers of children suffering from the most common form of the most common mental health condition: social anxiety disorder. Although highly treatable, the article acknowledges that SAD can be difficult to diagnose in children given that young kids are often shy. However, it's also important to help kids with an [...]
The concept of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it now appears to have been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the very profession that once sustained it. Its passing will not be mourned. Today, having a diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with a life-expectancy reduction of nearly two decades. By some criteria, only one [...]
The more we persevere and sticks to life goals, the lower our risk of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression in the decades that follow, a new study suggests. In the study, which was published recently in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, researchers focused on three things in particular: goal persistence, self-mastery, and [...]
An estimated one in ten Australians were taking antidepressants in 2015. That’s double the number using them in 2000, and the second-highest rate of antidepressant use among all OECD countries. Yet some studies have found antidepressants might be no more effective than placebo. Not only does this mean many Australians aren’t experiencing relief from their [...]
Youth mental health becoming more prominent in Australian politics has spurred more interest in the public on assessments of the scale and nature of the problem. In this article, Generation Next co-founder Ramesh Manocha and other experts explain what is causing the youth mental health crisis and the most concerning trends now being evidenced in [...]
This article explores the growing concern that Victorian young people are self-harming in emulation of their peers, following a spike in reported cases of self harm in the state. It also assesses the extent to which self-harm may simply be more commonly detected and talked about, as well as the psychological drivers behind the phenomenon [...]
This article outlines the results of a recent study comparing two approaches for the treatment of childhood anxiety: conventional cognitive behavioural therapy and a new approach focusing on the relationship between child and parents. The first group of children attended therapy to recognise and control symptoms of anxiety and to overcome the causes with exposure [...]
The Fast Track to Health study is a year-long dietary trial in adolescents with obesity. Since it started in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of 2018, it has been criticised for increasing the risk of eating disorders in people who may be especially vulnerable to these conditions. Sydney-based clinical psychologist Louise Adams started up [...]
When parents find out that their child is self-harm they often feel alone and assume that their child is the only one struggling with this issue. However, the 2015 Mental Health Child and Adolescent Report tells us that approximately 10% of young people consciously experiment with self-harm at some stage through high school. Other research [...]
More than a quarter of high school students have experienced signs of clinical depression and other psychiatric conditions, with the type of mood disorder influencing students’ risk of suicide and self-harm. The UNSW study – published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease – offers a concerning insight into the lack of mental health [...]
