A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
As bushfires rage and our cities lie shrouded in smoke, climate change is shaping as a likely topic of conversation at the family dinner table this Christmas. Such discussions can be fraught if family members hold differing views. You may not all agree on the urgency of dealing with climate change – or indeed whether [...]
Australia has invested an extraordinary amount of time and effort into putting in place bullying prevention programs – especially across schools. But what happens when your bully is your own flesh and blood, and lives with you, so you have no escape? Sibling bullying tends to fly under the radar, in large part because many bullies [...]
Navigating life as a teenager can be hard, and when you need support, asking for it can be the biggest challenge. One tool - an app called MeeTwo - offers a way to seek help from behind a screen. It allows users to post questions anonymously and get answers from their peers and from undergraduate [...]
As a family member, encouraging a loved one to seek mental health treatment is one of the thinnest tightropes we can walk. “I’m fine!” “I’m not the crazy one - you are!” “I don’t need help!” Too often, encouraging a loved one to seek mental health treatment turns into a stalemate with long-lasting hard feelings, [...]
In June, the World Health Organization recognized video game addiction as a mental health disorder. It described the addition to digital and video gaming as “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” that becomes so extensive that it ‘takes precedence over other life interests.” In a dzBB interview on Sunday, IT expert Jerry Liao [...]
They say children are like sponges and imitate what their parents do and say. This can be cute but it can also become a problem, especially if what they are imitating is body-shaming and negative self-talk about food. This is not effective and can often cause negative side-effects for your children and family. But it doesn't have [...]
“Be a guide, not a guard” perfectly describes the kinds of parenting behaviors that create happy and responsible children. It’s a term I learned at a recent training session focused on reducing controlling parenting behaviors. When I ask parents “what have you tried to help change your child’s behavior?” little breaks my heart more than hearing a [...]
Mental health problems affecting young people are the main reason families stay at Ronald McDonald House Orange [RMHO]. The house provides accommodation for families living more than 50 kilometres from Orange who have children being treated at hospitals in Orange. RMHO executive officer Rebecca Walsh said families of children suffering mental health issues made up [...]
Every morning, I get up. I shower, brush my teeth, prepare lunch boxes and school uniforms. Then I take my medication. It's an ingrained routine that I could do in my sleep – a streamlined process that ensures everyone's out the door on time and my sanity is in check, my bipolar disorder held at [...]
Children's mental health in Britain is seeing a steady decline, with the latest statistics showing that over half of mental health problems start by the age of 14 and 75% by the age of 18. In the news out today, Childline even revealed it has carried out its highest number of counselling sessions with young people having suicidal [...]
