A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
School will start on a somewhat sombre note this year. Some schools will still be shrouded in smog from the bushfires. Some students will be grieving the loss of property, animals or even family and friends. Some remain evacuated and others are part of the recovery effort. In recent days, Australia’s education minister Dan Tehan [...]
Regardless of whether you teach in remote, rural, regional, or metropolitan schools, you can expect to come across a child in your classroom who has experienced trauma. Understanding the impact of trauma on learning capability may assist you to create trauma-sensitive learning environments. What is trauma? Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are stressful or traumatic events, [...]
Last month, eight women died as the result of male violence in Australia. Five were within one week. In six of the cases, the alleged perpetrator was a current or former partner. These figures seem all too familiar. This time last year, seven of the nine women allegedly killed by a male perpetrator were in [...]
Peak national body Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) has claimed that promotions of the movie IT: Chapter 2 have been irresponsible due to the use of graphic imagery in places that children can easily see, such as outdoor posters and internet advertising. ACCM President, Professor Elizabeth Handsley, said yesterday, “The impacts of [...]
Dissociative disorders are often said to be rare. But our soon-to-be published analysis of international studies suggest they affect 10-11% of the population at some point in their lives. This makes them nearly as common as mood disorders (such as clinical depression). So what are dissociative disorders, why is diagnosis controversial and how can people [...]
Trauma was once thought to be rare. Until just a couple of decades ago, even mental health professionals defined trauma as an event “outside the range of usual human experience” - but as Ellen Hendriksen explains, that was before a 1995 study revealed that 61 percent of US men and 51 percent of US women [...]
Dear Parent: I know. You're worried. Every day, your child comes home with a story about THAT kid. The one who is always hitting/shoving/pinching/scratching/maybe even biting other children. The one who always has to hold my hand in the hallway. The one who has a special spot at the carpet, and sometimes sits on a [...]
In recent months, we have been confronted by events that make the world seem unsafe. Among these are the horrific stories of child sexual abuse, the rise in Aboriginal youth suicide and the tragedy of mass killings at the hands of an Australian terrorist in Christchurch. Many of us feel anger, despair, hopelessness and grief [...]
The world is reeling in the aftermath of the horrific shootings in Christchurch. The attack has also raised a number of side issues, including the ethics of broadcasting the live stream of the attack, which was later shared on other platforms. As social media is fast becoming the favoured news source among young people, concerns [...]
When the world is struck with a catastrophic event, the instinct to shield our children from the effects of it is completely understandable. We want them to grow up believing that the world is pure and good and geared in their favour. We also want them to feel safe, and avoiding a discussion isn’t necessarily [...]
