A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
We are, right now, in the middle of a revolution in our thinking about the developing brain. We have always known it was important to nurture the very young but now we know why. A burgeoning number of new technologies, such as MRI, PET and rainbow [...]
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has questioned what Tony Abbott's ice taskforce will achieve and appealed for "courageous" leadership on the bigger problem of alcohol. Mr Kennett has called for a total ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorships, saying the key to tackling the ice epidemic is education. His stand was endorsed by the president [...]
Alcohol companies advertise during sporting events, and sponsor sports and teams so as to link sporting success with alcohol and to reach our children, the next generation of potential drinkers. And they do it very successfully. We know that the earlier children are exposed to alcohol advertising the more likely they are to commence drinking [...]
We’ve all been guilty of it – dramatically exclaiming that work is going to drive us to drink after yet another gruelling day at the office. But it turns out there may be a little truth in the old saying after all. A new study published by the British Medical Journal suggests that working too [...]
CHRIS UHLMANN: Allowing teenagers tastes of alcohol to try and promote responsible drinking might be counterproductive. That's the view of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre after a four year study of the drinking habits of 2000 families. Researchers found that teenagers who got alcohol from their parents are three times more likely to [...]
Most of us would recognize classic depression, with its heavy veil of sadness and hopelessness. But what if you just started getting stomachaches or were suddenly very snappy? Could you be depressed without knowing it? "Depression doesn’t always look like debilitating sadness," says Richard Kravitz, MD, MSPH, a professor of internal medicine at University of [...]
A Californian dad went a little too far when he tried to win the 'cool dad' contest by hosting a wild party for his teenage daughter. Jeff Lake, 48, was arrested by San Diego police, for hosting a party where underage people drink alcohol. The birthday party was in celebration of Olivia turning 18, and boasted [...]
Cup Day is a uniquely Australian celebration that seems increasingly about getting slaughtered on the drink. Lord knows I've got no qualms about boozing, yet its appeal is always diminished when the amateurs are out in force peeing and vomiting in the street - that's the women - while the blokes stalk around with a [...]
Perhaps even more popular than the online photo galleries of what the "celebrities" wore, are the galleries of the drunks and post-come-apart bogans as they unravel towards the end of a long day's drinking. The Instagram page "Drunk Girls of the Melbourne Cup" has more than 28,000 followers. It features women double-fisting booze bottles, accumulating [...]
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders are a group of conditions that develop in children whose brains are permanently and irreversibly damaged before they are born. They can manifest in a range of ways, from learning difficulties to developmental delays, sensory overload, impaired memory, impulsiveness and co-ordination problems. The single factor shared by everyone on the spectrum [...]
