A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Ross Jones thought he was taking a big risk when he phoned his boss from the waiting room of a counselling service to tell him he would not be coming to work that day - or the next. "At that time in our organisation it was a lot riskier to talk about your mental health, [...]
What’s your one hour a week? The Black Dog Institute is challenging Australians to complete at least one hour of physical activity a week to help improve their physical and mental health as part of ‘Exercise Your Mood’ week, until May 6, 2018. The campaign follows a recent study led by the Black Dog Institute [...]
It was winter 2013 - late in the evening - when my mobile began buzzing from the kitchen table. Alastair Clarkson’s name was flashing brightly on the screen, and immediate panic set in. When a head coach calls after dark, it’s like a police officer knocking on the front door: it can only be bad [...]
Warning: This article contains discussion of depression and suicide which some readers may find triggering and upsetting. Like a heavy punch to the gut that leaves me wheezing, every time I hear about a wasted life in the news through suicide, it brings back my own dreadful experiences with depression roaring back with an intense [...]
Sadly, mental illness affects a high proportion of the Australian population, with BeyondBlue reporting that 45% of the Australian population will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime. As employers, how do we deal with mental illness in our workforce? Furthermore, is it any of our business? Employees do not always disclose a mental illness [...]
Children and young people under 25 who are victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm and enact suicidal behavior, according to a new study. The research also suggests that it is not just the victims of cyberbullying that are more vulnerable to suicidal behaviours, but the perpetrators themselves are at higher [...]
When the Trump-affiliated firm Cambridge Analytica obtained data on tens of millions of Facebook users, it used the "Big 5" or "Five Factor Model" personality test to target them with ads designed to influence their votes in the 2016 US presidential election. The test scores people on five traits - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and [...]
Researchers have found that when a person rates their current mental health as 'positive' despite meeting criteria for a mental health problem such as depression, it can predict good mental health in the future, even without treatment. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Sirry Alang of Lehigh University and her co-authors, Donna D. [...]
Kate* was sitting at her desk working late with her colleague Ben* when he told her he was suicidal. She was visibly horrified and when Ben saw her reaction he immediately took his words back and asked her not to tell anyone. "You're kind of a friend, a colleague, a manager, and you want to [...]
A lack of essential nutrients is known to contribute to the onset of poor mental health in people suffering from anxiety and depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and ADHD. Nutritional psychiatry is a growing discipline that focuses on the use of food and supplements to provide these essential nutrients as part of an integrated or alternative [...]
