Michael Carr-Gregg's Blog

Time to get rid of schoolies

2011-11-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

Schoolies as David Penberthy wrote in his column in the Herald Sun has become the 'byword for the worst elements of Australia’s teenage binge drinking culture.' My patients returning from the Gold Coast often describe it as a bacchanalian orgy of excess, drinking, drugs and often unprotected sex . (The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus (or Dionysus), the wine god. The term has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry.)

Why does this happen? Simple really - four elements can combine when hoards of teenagers gather together on the Gild Coast and other places.

• Lack of supervision
• Alcohol’s disinhibiting effect
• Teen brain development
• Peer pressure on steroids

But there are many reasons to seriously think about dismantling this rite of passage.

Firstly, the people on the Gold Coast don’t want it – “…The festival does nothing but promote this city as a place where people are welcome to become so intoxicated that they vomit in gutters, swear until all hours of the morning and generally trash the place...allowing the festival to continue says to the rest of Australia - and the world - that Surfers Paradise is one big 'vomitron' - get on the ride, have some fun and spill your guts everywhere afterwards," writes Shannon Willoughby in The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Secondly, it normalises, glamorises and sanitises bad behaviour. David Penberthy pointed out that the Gold Coast the police applauded what has now come to be regarded as orderly conduct - 86 schoolies arrested on 101 charges, and a further 156 non-schoolie hangers-on pinched on 195 charges, with a further 90 receiving infringement notices. How is this okay?

Third, the cost in police resources is indefensible. Right across the country, be it on the Mornington Peninsula, Rottnest Island, Byron Bay or Victor Harbor - police are forced to deploy scarce resources to supervise, monitor and inevitably, clean up the mess that results from this 'tradition'.

But lastly, the young people end up not enjoying it. Research shows that the vast majority wish they'd never gone. Professor Sandra Jones and colleagues from the University of Wollongong found seven out of 10 of the teens, aged 17 to 19, rated the entire experience as a negative one.

The problem is simple, teenagers don't have many alternatives to mark the end of high school, so we should create them and encourage young people to do good and learn about themselves at the same time. Surely it is time for parents and schools to get together and offer a range of alternatives.

Here is an example. Kampuchea House is an Australian-funded orphanage and is located approximately  40 km from the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia.  It is here that the wonderful Temples of Angkor  are located. The Orphanage recently hosted a visit of 18 Year 9 students (plus 3 teachers) from St. Leonard's College Brighton. The students donated gifts of books, stationery items and funds for new bikes.

Like many orphanages they are separately short of resources and there would be multiple opportunities for year 12 students to assist by providing labor or other resources. Surely this would be a better way to celebrate the completion of Year 12 than the vomitron?

Are we in danger of raising a marshmallow generation?

2011-11-17T11:05:00.000-08:00

You bet. First, large number of Australian parents were hesitant to set limits or boundaries, use moral language or enforce consequences when their progeny make bad choices. Now, this permissive parenting is being compounded by a segment of the parenting population who have an almost pathological desire to protect their children from disappointment and failure – presumably because they are frightened of challenging them or placing too much pressure on them to succeed.

Working hand in hand with some schools, in their zeal to shield these young people from discomfort, disappointment and distress, there is a tendency to overcompensate by swathing them in metaphorical cotton wool.

Whether it is not allowing actual scoring at football - because we can’t have a losing team, or awarding participation ribbons rather
than first, second and third prizes to ‘minimise’ competition, or giving every child a ‘satisfactory grade’ at school – they are lulling
their offspring into the mistaken belief that life is all sweetness and light. This ‘bowl of cherries’, rose coloured glasses view of life
is not just wrong but ultimately unhelpful.

The truth is that all of life's important lessons are usually accompanied by a degree of grief, pain and suffering. Do these ‘Pollyanna’ parents ever think about how their children will cope with the rude awakening that firstly, life is not always fair, secondly, bad things happen to good people and lastly that random and chaos abounds in our universe?

When you take away the ability to win and lose, where is the incentive to achieve and get better? We remove the capacity for them to develop resilience and the ability to face, overcome and be strengthened by adversity. How will these children learn to associate effort with outcome?

The result will be a generation of young people incapable of assuming adult responsibility with no idea how to handle the routine challenges of life, making them risk-averse, psychologically anaemic, and riddled with fragility and anxiety.

Last time I looked, failure and experimentation were the true architects of success. Parents and schools seem to be trying to remove failure from the equation. With record levels of anxiety and depression, such ‘looney tunes’ parenting practices could be the hidden psychological fault lines for the next generation.

Surely, it is now time to question this substandard and ill conceived strategy for raising kids? In lieu of any definitive research, there will be those who disagree, which is their right, but what sort of a civilisation will we have if our young continue to progress down this path?

As a school child, if I or my fellow students complained about something - we had a teacher - ironically called - Mr Cherry who
would say - "You'll live. If not, you'll die. Either way, problem solved."

Sometimes children need to feel badly…we learn through experience and both good and bad. It is through failure we learn how to cope.

A really useful App

2011-07-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

Given the fact that the vast majority of young people are now walking around with a smart phone of some description, it makes sense to use the technology to offer up to date, reliable information about drugs. The good news is that parents and young people can now instantly access illicit drug information and advice using the brand new National Drugs Campaign iPhone app.

Available free from Apple iTunes, the app includes a range of useful resources:

facts on ecstasy and other illegal drugs
consequences of drug use
advice for young people on avoiding drug use and helping friends
tips for parents on talking to their teens about drugs, and
support contacts for youth and families.
The app aims to raise awareness about the harmful effects of drug use and encourage and support decisions not to use.

Featuring GPS functionality, the app helps people find support services based on their location.
In my clinical work with young people, I am often amazed at how little some know about the drugs they are using, the potential impact on their health and wellbeing.

I call upon all schools to publicise this app and to encourage Mum's and Dad's as well as students to download the National Drugs Campaign iPhone app free from the Apple iTunes. online store.

By the way, well done to the National Drugs Campaign for this great idea...

Mental Health and the Budget

2011-05-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

The recent Federal Budget announced funding cuts to the Better Access initiative involving a cap on the maximum number of allowable sessions of psychological treatment a client can receive per calendar year.

From 1 November 2011 this will be capped at 10 (6+4), with no ‘exceptional circumstances’ that allow additional sessions on top of the 10 allowable sessions.

I am very concerned that this will affect young people with serious mental health disorders who are more likely to require lengthier treatment.

We need all people who care about the mental health of Generation Y and Z, to join us in a campaign to have the number of allowable treatments restored to the current arrangements.Please write to the Prime Minister Julia Gillard at:

http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Or the Minister of Health Nicola Roxon at:

Parliament House
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Tel: (02) 6277 7220
Fax: (02) 6273 4146

Email: Nicola.Roxon.MP@aph.gov.au

Where do parents get up to date information about drugs

2011-05-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

For years now, drug and alcohol education has emphasized that some of the most important messages that young people get about drugs come from their parents. I have long believed that parents ought look for teachable moments, be they articles in the newspaper, stories on TV or the radio to kick start a conversation, be that in the car, over a meal or just on a walk.

But this presupposes that you know enough about drugs to educate your kids? Do you really know how to answer your kids’ questions about drugs, or How to respond if they told you that a friend had taken drugs, would you know what to say?Part of building resilience in young people is to ensure that our children have the skills to avoid being peer pressured into taking drugs. For the answers to these and other questions please visit australia.gov.au/drugs. Above all, remember the earlier you do it the better.

A really important topic of discussion is Ecstasy, as my own son told me recently he was asked for or offered Ecstasy several times while walking to a music festival just last month. So what might be the two key messages around Ecstasy? I have been asked and I have accepted the invitation to be an online ambassador for the Federal Government's online drug information efforts.The web site suggests these key messages which I think are critical:

• Ecstasy pills are made in filthy labs, using toxic substances like battery acid and bleach.
• You really don’t know what’s in it or what it will do.

Ecstasy is the focus of a new Australian Government advertising campaign warning against the dangers of illicit drug use in Australia.
Young people are being urged to face the facts about ecstasy use, including the psychological impacts and the reality of illegal drug production labs.The Ecstasy. Face Facts campaign highlights the risks associated with ecstasy use, including that you don’t know what’s in an ecstasy pill.

The National Drugs Campaign is running again and aims to help young people understand the consequences of taking drugs, and encourage and support their decisions not to use drugs. There are a range of different treatment and support options available to someone to help them reduce and stop using illicit drugs – such as the Alcohol and Drug Information Service, counselling and self-help groups.

It is fashionable to criticize the Government but this is a useful and well thought through campaign - parents should do everything they can to get informed and this is a logical first step. Share the URL!

Sleep and traffic

2011-05-01T01:22:00.001-07:00

Time to act on sleep

Much to my delight, last week a Sydney sleep research team has backed calls for the NSW State Government to trial later starting times for students - not for all the reasons that psychologists like Andrew Fuller have been calling for, but in a bid to ultimately take thousands of buses off the road during morning peaks.

The Sydney Business Chamber has asked the Government to consider the trial, saying there needs to be creative thinking and new incentives to change transport demand patterns. The previous government Labor government had also agreed to look into the trial.

The Chamber executive director Patricia Forsythe has acknowledged that later high school starting times will not only lessen pressure during peak periods but may also help in the development of teenagers.

Given that one in five Australian high-school students do not get enough sleep and have less than the international guidelines of 9.5 hours for school nights, it is entirely unsurprising that the Glebe-based Woolcock Institute of Medical Research has supported the idea of a trial.

The problem is that current school start times prevent many young people from sleeping in to obtain the sleep they need, creating the situation where teenagers are now regarded by experts as the most chronically sleep-deprived part of the population.

This lack of quality sleep not only affects teens' daily functioning but is also associated with increased risk of serious psychological and physical ill-health including depression, substance abuse, obesity and diabetes.

As a Melboure-based adolescent psychologist who frequently gets stuck in Sydney traffic, I find it hard to believe that this idea would not receive the unanimous support from Sydney-siders, since the the traditional approach of putting on more trains, buses and more lanes on roads does not seem to be working.

Sadly, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli does not support the idea of the trial saying it was not currently under consideration. History shows that this initiative will be fought tooth and nail before eventually being accepted as sensible public health policy.

There remain three questions to be answered.

How long will we have to wait?
How many young life trajectories will be compromised in the process?
Are there any school administrators with the courage to run this experiment?

A help button that really HELPS!!

2011-04-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

While many social commentators look for opportunities to belt the Federal Government for the things they do wrong, they are less quick to laud them for doing something right.

A csae in point is some sterling work done by the good folk in the Department of Broadband and the Digital Economy, who have created a Cybersafety Help Button designed to keep young people safe online. The Button is an online resource hub that gives children and teenagers instant access to help and information on cybersafety issues 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Best of all, it is a free application which anyone can download from the website of the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Once downloaded, it sits on the computer desktop or within the taskbar. When the button is clicked, users are taken directly to a web page where they can talk, report or learn about cybersafety issues.

The talk function gives a link to Kids Helpline. Users who are worried by cyberbullying or offensive online behaviour or content can phone or chat online to a professional counsellor.

The report function offers direct links to pages on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter that have site-specific cybersafety information. There are also links for reporting scams, fraud, inappropriate websites and improper behaviour and for contacting the Australian Federal Police.

The learn function provides a range of cybersafety educational resources through the ACMA’s Cybersmart website and the Department’s Stay Smart Online website. Visitors to these sites can learn about cyberbullying, social networking sites, scams and frauds, password protection, viruses and malware, unwanted contact and inappropriate behaviour.

Best of all this initiative came out of a consultation with the Government’s Youth Advisory Group and the Consultative Working Group on Cybersafety, made up of members aged eight to 17 years. They expressed the need for a ‘one-stop shop’ for cybersafety help and information and the Department obliged. Too often we see adults developing materials ythat they think would be good for young people, so it is great to see this latest development. Congratulations to Senator Conroy and the team at DBCDE....

The Cybersafety Help Button is available free of charge at www.dbcde.gov.au/helpbutton. It is compatible with all major PC and Mac operating systems and is easily installed onto home, school and library computers

Why I don't like Child Beauty Pageants

2011-04-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

Child beauty pageant company Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant is planning to hold a ‘Child Beauty Pageant’ in Melbourne, Australia, in July. Many psychologists and child development authorities agree that child beauty pageants are not in the best interest of healthy child development.

A study conducted by Anna Wonderlich et.al (2005) in the Journal of Treatment and Prevention reported ‘A significant association between childhood beauty pageant participation and increased body dissatisfaction, difficulty trusting interpersonal relationships, and greater impulsive behaviors and indicates a trend toward increased feelings of ineffectiveness.’

Leading social commentators like Melinda Tankard Reist Kids free to be Kids and the Australian Childhood Foundation have previously called for children under 14 to be banned from these contests.Television shows like Toddlers and Tiaras reveal the child exploitation endemic in these pageants.

Child advocates around the world have spoken out about the sexualised clothing, suggestive dance moves, hours of grooming and preening required. They have expressed concern about the way pageants provide external validation to girls that their physical appearance is what is most important in being female. They have criticised the way child beauty pageants re-inforce stereotypical norms about female beauty. They have also pointed out that adultifying children in pageants and elsewhere invites us to see them as older than they are, which puts them (and other children) at risk of inappropriate treatment.

Pitting young girls against each other in a competition based on physical appearance and performance is harmful to their well-being. Research on the sexualisation of children shows that reinforcing an emphasis on looks and attractiveness leads to negative body image, disordered eating, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.

I implore the Federal Minister for Early Childhood and Youth, the Hon. Peter Garrett and the Victoria Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Wendy Lovell, to take action to prevent these style of pageants in Australia and (with State colleagues) to consider legislative measures to ban all future pageants for children.

Bullying Video

2011-03-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Fighting back sounds courageous, effective and brave. In some contexts it is - when someone is invading our country or threatening our freedom - but in a school bullying situation, it is fraught with difficulty.

Firstly, retaliation can be fatal. Young people are not always aware of their own strength and it is quite easy for young people to be seriously and sometimes fatally injured as a result of a physical retaliation. Spending a significant part of your formative years in prison as a result of a serious error of judgement is a heavy price to pay.

Second, the young person who retaliates may well find themselves perceived as the aggressor especially if the authorities charged with providing students with a safe environment to learn, only witness the retaliatory act and not the events that led up to it.

Thirdly, there is a better way to respond. Violence begets violence and if we condone these actions, we end up saying that violence is a problem solving device. Instead, we need to equip students in primary school with conflict resolution skills, anger management and problem solving.

In the case of the video that has gone viral across the world, it behooves all of us who care for young people to offer the Year 10 boy our sympathy - not our condemnation. We have to understand that the video raises important questions for schools and the community. Why did no one intervene, where was supervision, if it is true that this was a long standing feud, why had nothing been done?

School bullying and violence is a huge problem and it is time we pressed the pause button on the DVD of media hysteria and voyeurism and instead reflect on what advice we should be giving schools, parents and teachers.

I have a dream - Bullying in Australia

2010-11-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Ben Cox has never had a friend. According to the psychologists who assessed him, it is highly unlikely that he will make any in the future, let alone form any romantic relationships or hold down a job. In what is an extremely bleak psychological forecast, the experts say that at the age of 18, his life has "all but been destroyed", and his adult life will be no better with anxiety and depression his only companions.

In a landmark case, in May 2007, the NSW Supreme Court found that the bullying was to blame and in what remains the biggest school bullying damages award in Australian legal history, Mr Cox's legal team estimated the reclusive Hunter Valley teenager will receive about $1 million, giving him an income for life and superannuation.
The Court found authorities "grossly failed" him when he was in kindergarten and year 1 at Woodberry Public School by failing to protect him from repeated assaults, bullying and harassment by an older, disturbed student. The Court heard that during one attack he was "throttled" and lost consciousness, and in another had a tooth knocked out when the bully tried to make him eat his jumper.

Both Ben, his family and I, have a dream.

It goes like this. Julia Gillard sends out a “Dear Principal” letter to every Principal of every school and educational leader of every TAFE and university across Australia explaining their legal obligations provide students with a safe environment to learn, explaining how to enhance their existing policies, curriculum material and practices in relation to cyberbullying and bullying . The letter would provide case studies and illustrates how a school should respond in each case. Ms Gillard allocates $200 million dollars to role out an evidence based strategy for addressing cyberbullying that Victoria has already allocated 10 million to.
But when it comes to Australia, sadly it is only a dream. But not in Washington DC. where the US Government has recently escalated its involvement in school bullying, sending out a “Dear Colleague” letters to 15,000 schools and districts and 5,000 colleges and universities explaining their legal obligations to protect students from student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment.

The letter provides examples of harassment and illustrates how a school should respond in each case.In an unprecedented move, the letter puts schools on notice that they have a legal obligation to stop what U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called “a silent epidemic”. In the most egregious cases where institutions and k-12 schools ignore bullying, they could risk a loss of federal dollars, he warned.
The goal is to both help education institutions build on their bullying prevention programs and to wake up “the schools that have their heads in the sand,” said Duncan.“If the federal government has to step in, it means that the problem was ignored for far too long,” said Duncan.

Many schools in Australia continues to display what I call the Cleopatra Syndrome (Queen of Denial) when it comes to bullying and cyberbullying, with anaemic policies that pay lip service to the issue while students continue to suffer in silence and parents fume. Only Victoria and Queensland have begun to address this issue. With bullying being a key driver of mental health problems in the young, one wonders how long it will take for Ms Gillard to pick up her pen and open her wallet.

National Mental health Crisis

2010-09-22T23:19:00.000-07:00

It is well accepted in mental health circles that 75% of all mental health problems start under the age of 25. At present in Australian schools, the research suggests that 30% of these young people will self identify and get help but approximately 50% with the most serious conditions will remain under the psychological radar, being undiagnosed and untreated.

That the mental health system in crisis is clear, with Professor John Mendoza, the chairman of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health, resigning in May 2010, citing frustration over what he says is the Government's lack of vision and commitment to the mentally ill.

He said that there has been a lack of federal government funding and progress in mental health reform. In interviews, Dr. Mendoza expressed his disappointment that the Government has only invested $30 million per annum for funding when the sector needs at least $1 billion per year.

According to psychiatrist Prof Patrick McGorry, the $26 million per year that is currently allocated is only about a tenth of what is required. He argues that to begin to assemble a backup system for Headspace (The National Youth Mental Health Program) $250 million a year is required.

The government's figures confirm that mental health problems account for about 14 per cent of Australia's ''health burden'', yet barely 6 per cent of health funding goes to this area. And in the recent COAG health agreement to spend billions over the next five years, less than 2 per cent of the total has been allocated to improving mental health services.

Barbara Hocking CEO of SANE, asked in a recent article, "... what happens when services are given less than half the funding necessary to do their job? The answer is ''triage''. When there is adequate funding, this is a sensible way of allocating resources to do the most good. However, when funding is inadequate, it basically comes down to rationing of healthcare."

Barbara Hocking argued that triage now has become a brutal mechanism to deny or delay care to everyone except for those who are extremely unwell, and sometimes not even then. This is an unenviable position for everyone, including health professionals, who are often perceived as the villains: for turning people away as ''not sick enough''; for sending people home with inadequate support after a suicide attempt; for discharging people from hospital without finding them somewhere to live that offers appropriate day-to-day help; for leaving families to struggle to provide care without any support; and, most of all, for leaving people who are at their most vulnerable and distressed to continue to suffer and fend for themselves. Without the resources, though, choices are limited and defensive crisis management quickly becomes the norm.

Greatly increased funding is absolutely essential if mental health services are to be resourced fairly, on a par with physical healthcare.

The Rudd/Gillard government has promised more will be done in 2011. That's good news. But the same was promised in 2010, 2009 and 2008, and very little happened. Just a few months ago, the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised a ''a historic reshaping of Australia's mental health services'. I and many colleagues are waiting...

Kennett's call not Silly

2010-09-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

Jeff Kennett's call for a return to national service to boost community spirit should not just be dismissed out of hand. Jeff is right when he says, that "...In Australia today we have a community in which people take for granted the environment in which we live and remain unchallenged and untested. There is too much emphasis on the individual and not the community. The simple fact is that most people don't understand how lucky they are living here. National service is a good thing in that it would make that clear to people and also teach them what it means to be a member of the community."

While the Mr Brumby disagreed, saying Victorians already had a great spirit of community service, that's not the point. A brief review of the literature tells us that boys are less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago, too many are plastered to the controls of their video games, hostile to school, disconnected from adult men and listless on "academic steroids" prescribed to them for attention deficit disorders. One of the worst enemies of young Victorians is boredom, and when young people live meaningless, boring unproductive lives, they generally find ways of entertaining themselves which are not always in society's best interests. The great thing about some sort of voluntary peace corp concept for young people is that it might...

a) provide a productive outlet for young people who are otherwise disaffected or disaffiliated
b) it will introduce them to some stable male and female role models
c) offer an opportunity to take healthy risks
d) offer an opprtunity to establish healthy peer relationships
e) it will provide them with a structure to their lives which will involve discipline and tradition which are deemed by the psychological literature as protective factors in their lives
d) it will equip them with a skill base for later on in life.

The epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving men is real and demands action; their "failure to launch" is a major public health issue - where are other people's solutions?

School Chaplains

2010-09-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

Wondered how many people read the article in today's Sunday Age (September 5th) challenging the legitimacy of school chaplains? Now I have met a lot of school Chaplains in my time and some were superb and some were not. There is no doubt that spirituality is an important protective factor in the lives of young people and that some research exists to suggest it is an important component of resilient young people. I therefore have always believed that the existence of a Chaplain is an added extra to any school. However, I do not believe that a Chaplain can do the same job as a psychologist and I would hate to think that some schools are opting for the sake of saving money, for a Chaplain to do the same job as that would be insane.

The following point need to be made:

1. In an ideal world every school should have a psychologist who is properly trained
2. The reality is that many schools can't afford them
3. The Howard Government erred in making money available for Chaplains not psychologists in the first place (but presumably did so because chaplains were cheap)
4. Given the overwhelming evidence that the mental health of young people is getting worse, we need to reconsider the policy
5. in the meantime, there should be a major push on ensuring that chaplains are properly trained and screened.

Perhaps the independents could have a word in the PM's ear.

Photoshopping School Photos

2010-05-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

I thought I had heard just about everything - but apparently not. Did you know that some photography businesses now offer parents the optional extra of airbrushing out their children's cuts and bruises in school photographs for a fee?

Professor Matt Sanders from the University of Queensland - father of the brilliant Triple P parenting program says it is a worrying trend and I would be asking why on Earth would you want your child's photo at this age touched up?

We all look back on school photos and think 'gee, we're not looking brilliant there', but that's just part of the journey. Every photo that we look at is part of our history - it has a story behind it. It's a conversation starter, it's a point of reflection about a family's journey through life and a child's journey through life -let's not distort it....

2010-04-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Perth education assistant and mother Lisa Hose was crowned the first female Biggest Loser in the Australian reality television show’s history. As a bonus, the winner, who lost a whopping 56.2kg, which was almost half her body weight (46.1%). She won double the prize money usually on offer - taking home $370,000 because she was the current holder of the special "money bracelet".

I really don't like this program because The Biggest Loser demonstrates that you can lose large amounts of weight and lead a healthier lifestyle without the help of surgery. That all it takes to achieve an optimal weight is hard work, sweat — and lots of tears.

What The Biggest Loser hasn’t been so successful at showing us is how to maintain this weight loss in the long run... I believe it is a carefully contrived fiction and an experiment in social conditioning.

If you give people enough money and put them into team environments, you can get them to do anything, even things that are painful and potentially harmful to their metabolisms. The contestants are not addressing lifestyle behaviors and eating habits that they need to change permanently, not just during a nine-week race.

This approach is similar to a fad diet, and we all know about them: You can lose weight on just about any diet, but when it’s over you gain the weight right back — unless you’ve changed your behaviors.. The Biggest Loser shows that:

Rapid weight-loss works
If you aren’t dropping double-digits each week, you’re somehow failing
The number on the scale is first and foremost
Eating well means depriving yourself (this resembles the crash diet mentality, something that isn’t realistic for your entire life)
Willpower is the answer to weight loss

This is crap TV and not in the interests of the health and welfare of young people.

Little Miss Bayside

2010-04-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday April 7th, I nearly choked on my wheaties when reading the morning paper to discover that a beauty pageant for children (inspired by US TV shows) called Little Miss Bayside will be held in Brighton in the next few months. This antediluvian throwback of a competition, which costs $100 will see tiny tots model swimwear and be judged on their smile and posture.

Organiser Laura Buik was reported in the Herald Sun as saying that US shows Toddlers & Tiaras and Baby Beauty Queens had sparked interest here and said that the Melbourne winners would get a tiara, but the main prizes would be a modelling contract and a three-day workshop. The news sparked great reactions from some Psychologists like Andrew Fuller who told the media that pageants such as these could lead to competition, anxiety and embarrassment. He said "...This is a good recipe for how to predispose your daughter into having an eating disorder...the risk is that they suddenly fear that their body shape is more important than their intellect." Also prominent was Pyschologist Dr Janet Hall who said pageants taught children that looks were more important than a good heart. It makes a competition out of being more grown up than you are."

Julie Gale (Kids Free to be Kids), Dr Joe Tucci (the Australian Childhood Foundation and I have called for a ban on such pageants for under 14 year olds, which was immediaely dismissed by the State government.

This inaction is puzzling given the long-standing and current overwhelming opinion in the psychology community concerning children's beauty pageants. Namely, that they are not in the best interests of healthy child development. There is enough undue, exaggerated focus on superficial beauty in this culture without children being pitted against each other in a contest of looks.

I have heard all the arguments defending these contests and they all appear to be self-serving defences with no apparent regard to the considerable body of research that demonstrates why they are harmful to kids. I know that people say, "There are other things they're judged on besides their looks; it teaches them poise, it gives them confidence." But the hard fact remains they are called BEAUTY pageants and they have been and always will be based on using arbitrary standards of "beauty" to make one contestant better than all the rest.

If you sense considerable passion and concern you are correct. 1 in 5 young people have a psychological problem in schools, mood and anxiety disorders are increasing, and I see the pain of adolescents (and their parents) struggling with eating disorders, not to mention the young woman in my office last week pleading with me to convince her parents to let her get plastic surgery because she can't continue living looking so ugly (always compared to the popular media's presentation of what is beautiful), I think that children's beauty pageants (and this is mostly a girl's/women's issue) do a great disservice to the winners, the losers, and all children.

VCE Exam scheduling

2010-02-12T13:58:00.000-08:00

Every year that I can remember the 1st Victorian Certificate of Education exam (English) has been held on a Friday, allowing students a minimum of two days to rest before the next exam.

This year the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) have in their wisdom, scheduled the English exam on Thursday (28 Oct) meaning that students who do Specialist Maths, Design and Technology, Theatre Studies and Biology (all scheduled for Friday 28th) could conceivably have 4/5 VCE exams in just 2 days.

The VCAA is an independent statutory body directly responsible to the Victorian Minister for Education, serving both government and non-government schools.Its stated mission is to provide high quality curriculum, assessment and reporting that promotes individual lifelong learning.

How does such a ridiculous schedule promote lifelong learning? I believe this is not in the best interests of the psychology of our final year students and could potentially be quit harmful.

Students, teachers and parents should write to the Premier and the Minister of Education and ask why the VCAA changed from a psychologically humane system that allowed students a weekend to recover?

Who did they consult, before making this decision?

What provisions have been made for those students who have back to back exams?

The VCAA have a reputation of being a law unto themselves and I am surprised that a Board with so many gifted and experienced educators would make such a decision.

I have raised this on my regular spot on Fairfax Radio 3AW on the Neil Mitchell Show and written a letter to the Age newspaper which was published today (13/2/10).

It is time that the VCAA re-considered this decision..

Push up bras for 6 year olds

2010-02-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, speaker, commentator and advocate with a special interest in issues affecting women and girls. Of late she has taken the lead on a number of issues around early sexualisation of young people. She brought to my attention that the department store Best and Lest were selling a push up bra to 6 to 12 year olds. This is what she sent me:

"We magnify the body, we perfect the silhouette, we help to cheat."

That was said about push-up bras by a woman who manages a French company which invented them.A bra now being marketed to girls who haven't even hit their teens and, mostly, will not possess anything that needs support, let alone need a lacy push-up number.In yet another example of the sexualisation of girls, Best and Less is selling the Tween-age Push-up Bra. Tweens have been defined as aged 6-12.

Now, as most people know, push-up bras are designed to show off cleavage. Obviously the inventors of the tween push-up bra don't care if there is no 'cleavage' to start with. They will help a young girl cheat and make it look like there is. Underwire padding, boosting: helping create the illusion that this little girl is much more developed than she really is.

And why would you want to do that exactly? Why would a child need to have her body magnified? What is a perfect silhouette for a child? Why would a child be required to cheat? Why adultify little girls? We are telling little girls that their bodies are not acceptable as they are. And that their bodies are supposed to draw attention, primarily male attention. The earlier these messages hit them, the more ingrained they become. They are being groomed to see their bodies as sexual objects.

Normalising and encouraging the appearance of breasts on prepubescent children puts them in danger. We are witnessing the disappearance of spontaneity, unselfconsciousness, curiosity and fun in girls – qualities that were once valued for their role in developing a strong sense of self identity; enabling girls to journey into adulthood in a natural and healthy way. But now they are body conscious – indeed self-loathing – at younger ages, wracked by fear and self-doubt, wondering if they are good enough. The manufacturers of the push-up bra for little girls know this, and are preying on it.

Melinda felt that the store needed to be held accountable and she asked us to email Best and Lest to tell them what I thought. This is my email to them:

"...I am a child and adolescent psychologist who works in the media and I am incandescent with rage with the bone brained individual in your company who thought it would be a brilliant idea to sell push up bras to prepubescent girls!

There are so many reasons why this runs counter to what we know is in the best interests of young girls - it is difficult to know where to start.

I can only refer you to the American Psychological Society Taskforce report (www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html) on the impact of early sexualisation and hope that you reprimand the cretin who made this decision and immediately withdraw the product.

Sincerely

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg"
Yesterday they sent me this email:

"Best & Less prides itself on its strong family values and has strict guidelines relating to the sale of products for young people. As such Best & Less does not stock or sell push up bras for children."

"The bras in question were intended to be a women's petite range from size 8AA through to 12B. They were made to current Australian standards for women's bras and were displayed in our women's underwear department."

"Regrettably an error resulted in the incorrect branding and labelling of these bras as 'Tweenage'. As a consequence, they were removed from sale in all of our stores across Australia as of yesterday, 2nd February."

"We have taken procedural steps to avoid any future branding or labelling errors of this sort."

We won.... never underestimate the power of the media to get things done...and long live Melinda Tankard Reist.

Teenage Road Deaths

2010-02-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

Last month, hundreds of teenagers dressed in black and pink fill St Francis of Assisi Church in Mill Park, 23 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district to say goodbye to Anthony Iannetta, 18, one of five young men killed when a speeding car driven by Steven Johnstone, 19, hit a tree at 140 km/h in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Of the major risk factors associated with teenage road deaths, many were present, the driver was speeding, had a blood alcohol level of .19, it was early morning, there was passenger overcrowding, and of course driver inexperience.

The horrific car smash, predictably reignited debate about penalties for hoon drivers and the Opposition and State Government began trading blows in the media over who has the toughest anti-hoon policy.

It was Nelson Mandela, who said that there can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its young people. Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released in September 2009 showed motor vehicle accidents are by far and away the leading cause of death in adolescent males (32%) and female (26%) behind suicide, so addressing the issue sensibly should go way beyond party politics.

As it stands now, as a result of the deaths of these five young men, hoon drivers face having their cars crushed, whoever wins this year's Victorian election, which is curious given there have been no peer reviewed studies showing the car crushing is an effective deterrent to young people. It transpires that Victoria will be in a position to run the world’s first proper scientific study of whether this works.

So what does the research show? Evaluation studies [i] in the United States concluded that vehicle impoundment/immobilization are associated with declines in crashes and moving violations that are both statistically and practically significant .

The experiences from New Zealand and elsewhere suggest that vehicle impoundment and confiscation are effective in reducing the road safety risks posed by sub-groups of drivers who have proved otherwise difficult to influence.

Currently Victoria has impoundment for extreme speeding currently 45km/h + over the limit. With increasing severity in consequences if there is re-offending. (48 hours first time, up to 3 months second time, and potential forfeiture third time).

Psychologists who study the behaviour of road users focus amongst other things on speeding. Victoria's arrive alive road safety strategy document states speeding is involved in 25-30% of road deaths and injuries. Speeding is one of the key ways in which adolescent risk taking is expressed, and increases crash risk dramatically. Every additional 5km/h over the speed limit doubles the risk of crashing.

Doing 20km/h over a 60km/h speed limit increases the risk of a casualty crash by 31 times - the same as driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.2 (4 times the legal limit)!

The problem is that the current penalty for travelling 20km/h over the limit is 3 demerit points and a fine. The State is much tougher and stronger on drink driving - the risk of a casualty crash at 0.2 BAC (4 times the legal limit of 0.05) increases by 30 times too, but the penalty for this is long periods of licence cancellation and P platers needing to start their P licence all over again and when they return to driving they have to put a device in their car (an ignition interlock) which stops them from driving if they have been drinking.

Many Australians who care about the health and welfare of the next generation need to ask themselves why was it so easy for Steven Johnstone’s car to be driven over the legal speed limit? Most of us drive a car with a speedometer that goes up to 240 Km/h – a design feature that could only encourage the very speeding behaviour that contributed to the deaths of five young men early on that Sunday morning.

Vehicles are also becoming increasingly powerful and are readily available to young people who are tempted to use vehicles beyond legal speed limits. The problem is that there are no physical barriers to speeding in the way vehicles are currently designed. External limits on behaviour are much more effective than education alone. Speed limiting technology is still in embryo and it is gratifying to know that Australian trials are underway. In the meantime if the Premier wants to take evidence based action to prevent the carnage on the road, then effective and appropriate consequences for such dangerous high risk speeding behaviour is needed and with respect Mr Brumby, 3 demerit points and a fine just doesn’t cut it.

The importance of paly

2009-11-25T02:41:00.000-08:00

Question. How important is play for human development?

Answer: Very important. A 2007 report from the American Academy of Paediatrics documents that play promotes behavioural development, brain growth, learning and that regular physical activity had positive effects on academic performance. Furthermore, the University of North Carolina’s Abecedarian Early Child Intervention program found that children who received an enriched, play-oriented parenting and early childhood program had significantly higher IQ’s at age five than did a comparable group of children who were not in the program (105 vs. 85 points).

beyondblue, the national depression initiative report 1 in 4 young people are battling a mental illness prior to reaching the age of 18. Rather than being the ambulance and the bottom of the cliff it is time to see what we can do to build resilience in young people and what early childhood factors have contributed to their apparent vulnerability. One but by no means the only factor, is the fact that play is rapidly disappearing from our homes, our schools, and our neighbourhoods.

Consider the following facts. Over the last two decades alone, children have lost eight hours of free, unstructured, and spontaneous play a week. More than 30,000 schools in the United States have eliminated recess to make more time for academics. From 1997 to 2003, children’s time spent outdoors fell 50 percent, according to a study by Sandra Hofferth at the University of Maryland.

Hofferth has also found that the amount of time children spend in organized sports has doubled, and the number of minutes children devote each week to passive leisure, not including watching television, has increased from 30 minutes to more than three hours. It is no surprise, then, that childhood obesity is now considered an epidemic.

The decline of children’s free, self-initiated play is the result of a perfect storm of technological innovation, rapid social change, and economic globalization.
Technological innovations have led to the all-pervasiveness of television and computer screens in our society in general, and in our homes in particular. An unintended consequence of this invasion is that childhood has moved indoors. Children who might once have enjoyed a pick-up game of football in an empty lot now watch the game on TV, sitting on their couch.

Meanwhile, single and working parents now outnumber the once-predominant nuclear family, in which a stay-at-home mother could provide the kind of loose oversight that facilitates free play. Instead, busy working parents outsource at least some of their former responsibilities to coaches, tutors, trainers, martial arts teachers, and other professionals.

As a result, middle-income children spend more of their free time in adult-led and –organized activities than any earlier generation. Low income youth sometimes have the opposite problem: Their parents may not have the means to put them in high-quality programs that provide alternatives to playing in unsafe neighbourhoods.) Finally, a global has increased parental fears about their children’s prospects in an increasingly high-tech marketplace. As a society we need to become much more proactive in reclaiming play and we should all every opportunity to use the media to advocate on behalf of our children.

Jessica Watson

2009-10-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

The weekend death of 2 experienced sailors (Sunday Age 11/10) highlights the dangers inherent in yachting and the inadvisability of Jessica Watson's bid to sail solo around the world.

Many experienced yachties have added their voice to a growing chorus of experts which includes Queensland's Maritime Safety Bureau saying that 16 year old is too inexperienced to embark on such an 11 month voyage.

Not only are there legitimate questions as to whether she has the cognitive and emotional maturity to handle such an arduous journey, this sets a dangerous precedent which might encourage even younger people to try their hand.

A Dutch court put a stop to 13-year-old Dutch sailor Laura Dekker from attempting to become the youngest person ever to sail around by taking temporary custody of her, surely it is time for the Family Court or the Supreme Court of Queensland to grant an injunction preventing her from doing so?--

Kyle Sandilands

2009-09-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

Kyle Sandilands must be one of the most unpopular guys on the planet, with his latest outburst seeing him once again facing the sack from his $2 million 2DayFM breakfast show for making grotesquely tactless and insensitive remarks that comic Magda Szubanski would lose more weight if she spent time in a concentration camp - just weeks after being censured for a lie-detector prank involving a raped teen.

Kyle is copping it from everywhere, including NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, who said he did not think the breakfast radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O should have been allowed back on air after thier last gaff. Add to that Victorian Premier John Brumby who slammed Sandilands, labelling his comments completely inappropriate and insensitive, an emotional pop star Rene Geyer who demanded Sandilands be taken off air permanently, breaking down on Rafdio 3AW, as she spoke of photos of her mother in a Nazi concentration camp and Zionist Council of Victoria president, Dr Danny Lamm, suggesting suspending Sandilands was inadequate.

Just when one thought things could not get much worse - this weekend, the paper carries comments from his Dad Peter Sandilands deniying his DJ son's story of living on the streets for a year as a teenager, insisting Kyle only did so for a night or two. Professionally he is in deep do do. Sponsors such as Optus are withdrawing their support from his show and it is understood that the shock-jock has exhausted the patience of his network executive chairman Peter Harvie, who reportedly wantsthe host removed.

It is entrirely unsurprising that the suspended star is believed to be en route to Sydney from the US, replaced on air yesterday by Australian Idol's Andrew G and singer Dannii Minogue who joined host Jackie O.So what is it with Kyle? A journalist who recently interviewed him described him as "...a fairly simple guy who knew his place in the world, a guy who perhaps had more opinions than knowledge."

I think this is an oversimplification and I am beginning to think it may be more complex than this and I am beginning to feel sorry for Kyle. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association and which provides diagnostic criteria for mental disorders, there is a diagnosis of a condition known as a personality disorder. Personality disorders are defined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as "an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the culture of the individual who exhibits it". These patterns, as noted, are inflexible and pervasive across many situations, due in large part to the fact that such behavior is ego-syntonic (i.e. the patterns are consistent with the ego integrity of the individual) and, therefore, perceived to be entirely appropriate by that individual.

The onset of these patterns of behavior can typically be traced back to late adolescence and the beginning of adulthood and, in rarer instances, childhood. Diagnosis of a personality disorder is very subjective, but in order for someone to be diagnosed, for example with a borderline persionality disorder, three or more of the following are required:

Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure; Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead;
Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
Reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honour financial obligations;
Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.

I don't know Kyle Sandilands, but as far as I have read, he does not meet criterion 1,2,4 or 5 and the readers of this blog can draw their own conclusions about the others. As I have never interviewed Kyle it would be quite improper and unethical to suggest that he has a specific personality disorder - however, when an individual exhibits the same type of behaviour over and over again, one has to ask whether something else may lie behind his behaviour.

All I do know is that after Kyle first suspension, the media rang me for an opinion and I suggested that he use his time off to reflect on his actions, now I am suggesting that he use his time off to reflect with a professional person, who may help him explore how his early life experiences may be influencing his current behaviour. As for the journalists baying for his blood perhaps it is time to let things play out in private. How about leaving Kyle alone to sort out his life?

Road carnage solutions

2009-01-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

The apprehension of a 78-year-old Narre Warren North man driving 170km/h in a 100km/h zone in Brandy Creek Road, Warragul reminds us that it is not just young people who drive recklessly.

Some 887 kilometres away, around about the same time in the Sydney suburb of Chipping Norton a 15 year old girl Lucy Lieberman, was killed instantly after her 18 year old boyfriend’s Honda Integra skidded for 80m before it slammed into a power pole, the fourth crash involving P platers in as many days. Flowers now mark the spot where Lucy died.

Her death prompted desperate NSW police to seek new laws allowing them to confiscate the cars of speeding P-platers. Current laws only allow for cars to be confiscated from drivers caught street racing and doing burn-outs. But police want to be able to seize cars from any P-plater who exceeds the speed limit by more than 20kmh

Traffic services commander Chief Superintendent John Hartley has suggested that for the first offence, the driver could lose the car for a week to three months, and the second time they could lose it completely, even if it was their parents' car.

"A second-time offender may have the vehicle forfeited for sale or destruction . . . placing an onus on owners lending cars to P-platers to ensure they do the right thing," he was reported to have said in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

Having enjoyed some success in lowering the road toll, it is time the community gave its leaders the green light to target P platers in the same way. The Victorian Government has the opportunity to continue its pioneering work in public health, exemplified by the success in getting young people to stop smoking in creating a very strong deterrent to stop the senseless loss of young lives.

While there is no doubt that the vast majority of P-platers drive responsibly, there remain a small cohort of young, mostly male drivers, who continue to flaunt the law.
Teenage boys flirt on the edges of danger.

They engage in risky behaviour because they think they have a cloak of invulnerability draped around them.

Many believe that nothing will ever happen to them.

Recent advances in functional MRI technology, known as fMRI, have shed some light on why teenage boys harbor this mistaken belief.

New discoveries provide scientific confirmation that the teenage years are a time of significant transition.

They shed light on the mysteries of adolescence and demonstrate that adolescents have significant neurological deficiencies that cause stark limitations of judgment.

Research suggests that when compounded with known risk factors, these limitations can set the psychological stage for the sort of tragedy that happened in Chipping Norton.

Research shows that adolescent brains are not fully developed: the capacity to make decisions, use judgment, respond to the emotions of others and assess long-term consequences are works in progress.

Even as their brains develop and their cognitive abilities mature, adolescents continue to display psycho-social immaturity.

Which is why they are more prone to peer pressure, tend to focus on reward over risk, act impulsively and are present instead of future oriented.

It is clear from the research that a unique characteristic of teenage boys is an inability to predict the consequences of their actions.

This is largely because during adolescence, the brain undergoes significant maturation called myelination, which streamlines the connections inside the brain, allowing for more reasoned responses.

The general consensus among neuroscientists is that the maturation process is not completed until young adulthood: perhaps as late as 30 years of age, making the teenage brain inherently less capable of balancing emotions and more likely to exhibit risk-taking behaviour.
The result of this delay in brain development can be seen clearly on the roads.
Young people aged 16-20 represent 7 per cent of all drivers but account for 18 per cent of all fatalities.

This number increases to 25 per cent between 10pm and 2am.

So, part of the reason for what happened to Lucy is that the driver was a teenage boy and his brain was simply not capable of making a sensible judgment.

But the sad reality is that the law can do only so much to protect the teenage brain from itself.
One thing is clear: laws that say young people are fully mature at the age of 18 are wildly out of step with modern neuroscience.

Perhaps the loss of their cars – so intertwined now with their sense of self will make a difference. In any case, what would be wrong with a Victorian trial of such a law?
Until the issue is addressed there will be more flowers next to power poles in the years to come.

5 ways to survive the festive season

2008-12-23T11:28:00.001-08:00

For many people, the festive season is a wonderful and happy time; a period of the year in which they interact with loved ones, enjoy good food and receive plentiful gifts. To these people, I say good luck and may you have all the love and happiness you no doubt deserve.

For others, however, this time of year can actually be very difficult. For these people the festive season is a period that reinforces the extent to which they feel alone; for many of these people it simply serves as a reminder of loss (if, for example, someone they know has died or left them). For some people the festive season is just a frustrating interruption to their normal routine and so to all these people, I offer some hope.

Who ever you are and where ever you fit in the general scheme of things there are, regardless of your circumstances, several strategies that will almost certainly be of benefit so I hope you find these helpful and I encourage you to do what you can to implement them in a way that’s appropriate and relevant to you. The reality is that this Christmas might not be ideal for all of you reading this but at the same time, there’s also no doubt that there are things you can do to get through this period with a minimum of distress and hopefully, even some joy!
So let’s look at what you can do:

First, practice appreciation and gratitude. That is, do what happy people do which is focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t have. This is especially useful and helpful in the case of relationships so if you have to spend time with people you’d rather not spend time with, contemplate their more positive qualities and try not to get too bogged-down in the bad; alternatively, if you can’t spend time with people you’d like to spend time with then practice positive reminiscing and meditate upon the good times you’ve had with them in the past.
Second, if you get upset that people don’t call you or that you’re not being invited to the right sort of events get on the front foot, as the cricketers say, and actively schedule enjoyable activities. Rather than being passive and sitting back waiting why don’t you do the phoning and inviting and the organising. Even if it’s just seeing a few friends for a quick coffee, there’s no doubt that social interaction is more often than not mood enhancing so start building that into your December.

Third, make sure you don’t make things harder for yourself by having unrealistic expectations; that is, take the pressure off yourself by acknowledging that ‘the day’ doesn’t necessarily have to be perfect. If appropriate for you, depending on what you’ve experienced over the last twelve months, accept that this year your celebrations just may not be as you’d like them to be – and that’s ok. We all have difficult times and we can only do our best; but hopefully, next year will be a better one.

Fourth, and in some ways extending my previous points, do whatever you can to spend time with people who are most important to you and who are most likely to boost your mood; it might be your children, your parents or other family members, it might be work colleagues or friends. Whom ever it is, make sure you work hard to spend time with those people who are energising and positive and what you’ll probably find is that their attitudes will partly rub-off on you.

Finally, do whatever you can to build and to develop your own hope and optimism (and if you can foster this in others then even better). Try to reassure yourself that next year will be much better and if you’ve not already done so, start making plans to ensure this “better future” becomes a reality and doesn’t end up being just a pipe dream. Focussing on the longer-term and keeping things in perspective is at the heart of resilience and is fundamentally important to being able to work through adversity and bounce back from challenges.

So there it is – five things you can do to have a very merry festive season. I wish you all the best.

Internet safety

2008-11-15T01:33:00.000-08:00

Most people reading this blog would in all likely never of heard of The University of Central Lancashire (or UCLan) is a university based in , UK. Before 1992, the University had been Preston Polytechnic since September 1, 1973, and then Lancashire Polytechnic in 1984.

UCLan run a unique course entitled 'Child Safety on the Internet'. The course organisers have recognised that the net and mobile phones are an essential part of our lives used routinely by most people in banking, shopping, working and communicating with friends and allowing them to initiate new relationships.

All the evidence points to the fact that generation next are enthusiastic users of the the new technology and enjoy substantial benefits both educational and creative. while not wishing to demonise the net, there are clearly potential risks to the well-being of children and young people, including cyberbullying or the creation of sexually explicit material. There is a need to develop effective education about the risks and opportunities associated with the use of the Internet and other ICTs.

Having enrolled in the course , I have already learnt about the range of emerging mobile and Internet technologies, their use by children and young people, and the associated risks, the most effective ways in which to encourage safe and responsible use of ICTs by children and young people, and enable you to develop the skills to effectively communicate with children and young people.

I strongly recommend the course, and more information can be gleaned from http://www.uclan.ac.uk/index.php

Senate inaction

2008-09-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Psychologists and public health advocates across Australia, are calling on the Senate to pass the proposed excise on ready-to-drink, premixed spirits products otherwise known as “the alcopops tax”.

International research demonstrates that taxing alcohol is an effective method of reducing the level of drinking and harms caused by misuse of alcohol. The alcopops tax change should be viewed as a first step in a broader review of the important role that taxation and pricing can play in reducing alcohol-related harm.

Scientific evidence suggests that increasing the tax on these products will reduce the amount consumed at high risk by the youngest drinkers, due to the higher price. We continue to call for more comprehensive alcohol sales data collection to enable more precise measurement of the impact of policy changes. The limited evidence that is available suggests, despite some comments from the drinks industry, that the increased excise on alcopops is already having a positive impact.

Displacement of consumption to other alcohol products is commonly cited as a reason against the alcopops tax. While there is undoubtedly some displacement, the overall effect of such taxes, as shown by the international research evidence, is to reduce consumption.

Alcohol sales data collected by AC Nielsen since the excise was introduced is consistent with international experience. Sales of alcopops have plummeted by 26% in the latest quarter to July, compared to 2007, while spirits have increased by 11% and beer by 1.5%. Compared to the same period last year, AC Nielsen states consumption has declined by 3 million standard drinks.*

Many alcopops were developed for the palates of teenage drinkers. Higher prices for alcopops will prevent some potential “early drinkers” from starting and they will be protected from the risk of irretrievable damage to the developing brain, the risk of injury and mental health problems.

No single measure will prevent all underage and risky drinking. The alcopops tax serves as a foundation for a range of evidence-based strategies to deter underage and other risky drinking. The alcopops tax initiative recognises alcohol misuse imposes economic and health costs on the whole community and the government has committed substantial proceeds from the tax to prevention and related programs. For these reasons we believe it is important and worthy of support for the longer term benefit of all Australians.

I am hoping that the Senate can put aside political differences and vote on the basis of sound research evidence, rather than liquor industry propaganda. The alcopops tax measure is one important step in what needs to be a comprehensive response to the burden of alcohol related harm.

Food Police in SA schools

2008-09-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

I love Adelaide and South Australia but some schools over there have some real funny ideas.

There were reports yesterday of several schools ordering teachers to search children's lunchboxes for "inappropriate" food. In some cases, confiscated items were not replaced, leaving children to go hungry.

The SA Department of Education won plaudits with its ban on junk food under the Right Bite strategy launched last year by SA Health Minister John Hill and Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith, but this strategy applied only to food and drinks sold in school canteens and vending machines. Birthday cakes and food or drinks from home were not covered by the ban.

But according to a February 27 memo sent to principals and preschool directors by department deputy chief executive Jan Andrews, each school has discretion to ignore those instructions.
"It is up to each school and preschool community and their governing council to decide how to use the guidelines to encourage healthier eating beyond the requirement that bans junk food in school canteens and vending machines," the memo said.

Unsurprisingly many parents were angry – schools should be about education and not confiscation, and kids should not go hungry because food is taken from lunchboxes.

This is an abuse of power. No school teacher has the right to go into a child's lunchbox and arbitrarily deem some food acceptable and some not. It is a blatant interference in the rights of parents and has to stop now.

Happily, as a result of this fuss, rules on junk food in schools will be sent to all principals in SA government schools this week - clearly outlining the inappropriateness of teachers inspecting children's lunchboxes and confiscating items viewed as unhealthy. Thank God that sanity has prevailed...

More alcohol industry hijinks

2008-08-31T23:54:00.000-07:00

So the alcohol industry have generously offered to "forgo" $200 million collected by the tax on premixed spirits if the Opposition, minor parties and independents reject it.

Usually, when the Senate fails to pass such legislation, the excise collected would go to the alcohol manufacturers. However, the Distilled Spirits Industry Council (DSICA) says the companies don't want it and that the proceeds could fund "harm minimization" activities (DSICA Media Release 29 August).

This sounds impressive, but it shows how desperate is the spirits industry to kill the tax on its youth-friendly drinks. $200 million is a fraction of what alcopops producers will make from future underage drinkers. Economics researcher Chris Doran estimates underage drinkers consume alcohol worth $200 million each year.

The heaviest teenage drinkers consume premixed spirits so it is understandable the producers will do anything to swing the Senate. If the tax is defeated RTD producers will continue to rake in that revenue. The $200 million becomes an insurance policy that ensures the golden stream continues. A one-off $200 million pot for alcohol programs would not be adequate compensation for the defeat of the tax because RTDs would forever be priced artificially low. We have a better idea.

The government (or the Senate) should earmark 10% of the annual revenue from the tax to alcohol prevention. If the excise raises $500 million p.a., as expected, $50 million would be committed to fund alcohol prevention annually.

As the Coalition opposes the tax and the Greens support it, the key people in the Senate are Family First's Steve Fielding and Nick Xenophon. Senator Fielding has done his best to counter alcohol marketing and Senator Xenophon campaigns on a "no pokies" platform. It is hard to imagine either doing the bidding of the companies who produce super-strength RTDs, "energy" alcopops, and Jim Beam's "Stalker" campaign. And they surely can't forget price is a major determinant of consumption.

The alcohol industry shows it's true colours

2008-08-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

I am sick of the politicians and their hand wringing about the seemingly insoluble dilemma of teenage drinking. Parts of the alcohol industry spend about a million dollars a day on advertising and promoting their product direct to young people, and yet the politicians wonder why one kid dies weekly and 60 are hospitalised (on average) from alcohol abuse, each week in Australia!

Once again parts of the alcohol showed their true colours , when last Thursday morning Jim Beam Australia closed the website that featured its new "Neighbours" advertising campaign. It followed a report that day in The Age that the Australian Drug Foundation and Vichealth were making official complaints against the campaign.

The "Neighbours" campaign is designed for The Footy Show audience and could have been scripted by Sam Newman. In the main advertisement a couple of blondes wearing not much are spied upon by neighbours while sunbathing.

The "Neighbours" website ran an extended peeping-tom version, a striptease game, another ad that featured a female stalker, and offered a service for viewers to send prefabricated stalking messages to a mobile phone of their choice.

The "Stalker" ad appears to infringe the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) which proscribes "offensive behaviour". However, while most people probably think the promotion of criminal behaviour is offensive, on a previous occasion the ABAC adjudicators decided the clause relating to offensive behaviour applied only to explicit drinking behaviour.

As no person in the ads or on the website was depicted drinking the adjudicators might judge the ad consistent with the code. So why did Jim Beam pull the website? Probably due to bad timing - when the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia is moving heaven and earth to convince the Senate to drop the alcopops tax it can't afford bad publicity generated by an anti-social ad campaign from an alcopops producer. What to do?

The ABAC doesn't work - it can't prevent alcohol brands from designing campaigns glorifying near criminal behaviour, and in any case it has no teeth. The health field needs to learn from the alcohol industry and go straight to the people who make the decisions.

Health workers can't match the "donations" DSICA makes to political parties or the money it pays lobbyists, but we can let politicians know we support the alcopops tax, and want proper controls on alcohol marketing. Join us in sending your views to the key politicians listed below:

Senator Jan McLucas is the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, and has responsibility for alcohol policy for the Commonwealth Government, senator.mclucas@aph.gov.au.

Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Greens in the Senate, senator.bob.brown@aph.gov.au.

Senator Steve Fielding, holds the balance of power in the Senate with Senator Xenephon, senator.fielding@aph.gov.au.

Senator Nick Xenephon, holds the balance of power in the Senate with Senator Fielding, nickx@xen.net.au.

If you are a Mum or Dad who gives a stuff about the health and welfare of your kids when it comes to alcohol, send them an email now....

Alcopops tax working - industry claims misleading

2008-08-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

By now most people would have digested the fact that market research firm AC Nielsen has released alcohol sales data showing alcopops have plummeted 36% since the special excise was introduced in April, and spirits has increased only 3.4%.

It indicates the tax is working and the marginal increase in spirits sales suggests very little "substitution" by drinkers of premixed spirits has taken place. Overall, alcohol sales have decreased by 11.4% compared to the same period last year.

These results contrast to hysterical claims by spirits producers, representatives and retailers last week that spirits sales had soared. The Liquor Merchants Association produced data that purportedly showed spirits had increased by 46%.

The Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia immediately declared the tax a failure: DSICA claimed drinkers had switched massively from alcopops to spirits, thereby increasing the amount of alcohol consumed and the risk of harm (Australian 11/7/08).

The AC Nielsen statistics vindicates Ms Roxon's special tax on premixed spirits. Nielsen's commercial data is the industry standard and is derived directly from sales in Coles and Woolworths outlets, which comprise nearly half the total national alcohol market.

Strangely, the Nielsen figures were available to DSICA and all its members. If DSICA was not aware of the data, it could be accused of negligence and failing to represent its membership properly. That would be odd. It is more likely the spirits merchants and producers released their flawed statistics to grab the spotlight and try to reduce the impact of the authoritative Nielsen data.

Their ultimate aim is to convince key senators to reject the forthcoming RTD legislation.
The desperation of the spirits industry shows how important to their revenue is the youth-friendly RTDs, but it also shows they are not reliable sources of information and therefore have no place in alcohol policy making. Mums and Dads of Australia should be writing to their local Senator to urge them to pass the alcopops tax as it knows now that the tax will maintain downward pressure on underage drinking.

Kids are price sensitive and it worked with tobacco and it's working with alcohol...

Plan for disadvantaged kids from the UK

2008-07-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Poms have come up with an interesting idea.

Bright teenagers from poor families will be given £400 to spend on after-school clubs to encourage them to excel, and universities are offering more places at summer schools.

The aim is to encourage talented but disadvantaged teenagers to apply to top universities.
More than 1,500 pupils aged 14 and 15 from London, the Midlands and Manchester who are eligible for free school meals will receive the payments for clubs, extra lessons and mentoring.

The summer schools will give 21,000 pupils an introduction to university life.

Government attempts to widen diversity in higher education are behind the schemes. Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, said: “The extra funding will help unlock the talents of all our young people, ensuring that a university education is an option for everyone.

For many disadvantaged pupils, poverty of aspiration can be the biggest obstacle and there may be financial pressures pushing them towards early employment. In addition, students who do choose to attend university may not set their sights high enough.” Lord Adonis announced that £10 million of funding is to be given to schools so that they can train their own leaders to support special needs.

Not a bad idea. Wonder if Mr Rudd would be interested?

Welcome to Australia Dr Phil...

2008-07-20T02:10:00.000-07:00

What is the collective noun for a group of psychologists? Anyone? Anyone? Well, according to Wikipedia it is a 'complex' of psychologists. The announcement last week that the American television personality, psychologist and author Dr. Phil would be visiting Australia, drew a mixed response from a complex of Australian psychologists.

Such is his global reach, that there would hardly be a day when someone, somewhere in the world doesn’t write something about Dr Phil and sadly much of it is wildly inaccurate, so it is time for some Texas-style straight talk about Dr Phil.

While the US gossip mags have made millions spreading misleading stories about him, his wife and family, the truth is that the 58 year old was born Phillip Calvin McGraw in Vinita, Oklahoma and grew up with three sisters, in the oilfields of North Texas, where his father was an equipment supplier.

Despite what the nay sayers will have you believe, Dr Phil, from a clinical and academic point of view - is absolutely the genuine psychological article. He went to high school in Kansas and in 1968, won a football scholarship to the University of Tulsa, transferred to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He went on to earn a Master's degree in experimental psychology in 1976, and a PhD in clinical psychology awarded in 1979 at the University of North Texas where his thesis was titled "Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Psychological Intervention."

While some Australian psychologists might look down their therapeutic noses at him, largely due to a mixture of jealousy and ignorance, the facts are that he has won great plaudits back home in the states. Arguably one of the most distinguished of all American psychologists, Professor Gerry Kocher, while President of the American Psychological Association in 2006 recognised the contribution of Dr Phil by giving him one of the organisation's highest awards - a Presidential citation. He argued that Dr Phil had done more than anyone to takes psychology to people who normally would not have access to it.

Dr Phil’s messages are valuable. He clearly believes that a key to a happy life is to pay more attention to communication with the important people in our lives. Watch his program and you can see that many of his guests have made assumptions about what other people know about their feelings or their preferences and it is clear that poor communication can lead to disruptions in relationships and unpleasantness.

If as a result of his visit, some Australians are encouraged to push the pause button, on the DVD of their lives, take stock of what they’d like to be different and recognise that there are people out there who can help them with particular dissatisfactions - then the visit will be worthwhile. So welcome Dr Phil, I hope you and your wife enjoy your stay and get some down time, to look around our country while you are here.

Bullying model a disgrace

2008-07-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

It's not very often that anyone says anything complimentary about magazine editors, but you have to hand it to Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Kirstie Clements for her firm stance on the winner of Australia's Next Top Model, Demelza Revele.

Despite being one of the most controversial figures on the show, as the instigator of some vicious bullying behaviour, the Australian public, rather disappointingly voted her the clear winner.
Unlike last year's Australia's Next Top Model winner, the magazine's editor said she would not be putting Demelza on the cover of Vogue Australia, and that the September issue would also include an editorial addressing the issue of bullying and a readers' forum on harassment, which plagued this year's series of the reality TV show.

Before writing her editorial, Ms Clements should acquaint herself with the Kandersteg Declaration, signed in June 2007 at a conference held in the Swiss alpine village Kandersteg, entitled ‘Joint Efforts Against Victimization’, in which the world’s experts on bullying pledged their long term commitment and determination to promote healthy relationships and prevent bullying and victimization in children and youth.

The conference estimated that, approximately 200 million children and youth around the world are being abused by their peers at any one time and made a series of statements that the producers of Australia's Next Top Model would do well to take on board next time around.

• Every child and youth has the right to be respected and safe. Bullying is a violation of this do you think basic human right.
• It is the moral responsibility of adults to ensure these rights are honoured and that healthy development and citizenship are promoted.
• The mental and physical health, social, and academic consequences of bullying have an enormous impact on human and social capital.
• The costs of bullying burden our education, health care, social services, and criminal justice systems, as well as work force productivity and innovation.

No doubt, many in the safe schools community would have preferred Ms Clements to forgo the eight-page spread which will feature Australia’s top Model in an evening gown, however a contract is a contract and clearly the spread was part of the prize package.

While not wishing to tell Kirstie Clements how to do her job, perhaps the good folk at Vogue Australia should also consider putting Alamela Rowan, who was eliminated from the show in May, after being repeatedly targeted by Demelza and others while they were all living together in the model house, on the front cover, or at least give her an 8 page spread as well, to underline the point that bullies don’t always win.

Alamela, who is currently in her final year of high school at NSW's Byron Bay High, has forgiven the perpetrators and is moving on with her life. The aspiring model is now hoping to work with organisations such as the National Centre Against Bullying and Girlfriend Magazine to promote anti-bullying campaigns.

As for the producers of Australia's Next Top Model, perhaps for the next series they should insert a ‘Kanderstag clause’, that allows for the instant elimination of any contestant found to be engaging in bullying behaviour. If they did that, Demelza Reveley would never have even got to be in the final, a most unfortunate event, that has undoubtedly sent the wrong message to teenagers across Australia.

No justification for naked girls on art magazine

2008-07-06T18:54:00.001-07:00

Maurice O'Riordan is the editor of Art Monthly Australia - a taxpayer funded art magazine which has a naked six-year-old Olivia Nelson, on the front cover of its July edition.

The image is purportedly part of the magazine’s protest against the treatment of artist and photographer Bill Henson whose artwork was seized this year after complaints over its alleged pornographic nature.

Art Monthly Australia, which receives Government funding, published the photos in order to restore "some dignity" to the debate over art. Incredibly, Mr. Maurice O'Riordan said he chose the image to ‘quell’ debate and he is quoted as saying that he can’t really understand the furor and thinks this is ‘misdirected concern’

Let me help you out, Maurice.

It goes like this, psychologists across the country including Dr Joe Gucci of the Australian Childhood Foundation , will tell you that 6 year olds are incapable cognitively or emotionally of giving informed consent. Their brains aren’t through growing yet, and won’t be fully developed until their early twenties.

The truth is Maurice, you have used this child to make a political point, but maybe you don’t care about the fact that this will not be helpful to her development in both the short, medium or long term.

No amount of artistic gobbledygook rationalisation on your part, can disguise the fact that this is an infringement of her entitlement to a normal childhood.

What you have done is not sadly illegal, but it is ethically reprehensible.

Perhaps if you’d stopped to think before you splashed this child on the front cover of your magazine, you might have realized that, thanks to you, these pictures can now be put on the net, go around the world, to be in cyberspace forever.

Neither you nor the child’s parents can predict where these pictures will end up and the reality is that they have the potential to haunt her for years.

The fact that her parents yesterday have paraded her before the media, yesterday was in my view, at best -unwise.

Yes, she is now 10 years old and very articulate , but she is still a child and one can only imagine the reception she may get at school or as she walks down the street.

One can only hope that the New South Wales Government follows through on it’s threat to withdraw it's support for your magazine.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is a psychologist who works in private practice in Melbourne.

National Sex Education a Priority

2008-07-04T00:43:00.000-07:00

"Sex education may be a good idea in the schools, but I don't believe the kids should be given homework". Bill Cosby

It may have taken a while, but a Senate Committee has finally called for comprehensive relationships and sexual health education programs in all Australian schools.

Recommendation 13 of The Senate Standing Committee states: State and Territory governments, which have the responsibility for education, consider the introduction into all Australian schools of comprehensive sexual health and relationships education programs which are inclusive of both young people and parents, adopting a consistent national approach to the question.

Given that Australia is one of the last developed countries without a comprehensive relationships and sexual health education program as a part of the compulsory core school curriculum, this is a welcome if not long overdue initiative.

In my role as Agony Uncle in one of Australia's leading girl's magazines "Girlfriend", it has become clear that many of our young people are ill equipped to process the sexualised images which bombard them on billboards, the internet, music video clips and TV.

Adolescents are undergoing developmental processes that may lead to risky sexual behaviours. It is characterised by a belief in one's immortality, a desire to experiment, the seeking of peer approval, relatively short-term relationships, and unrealistic expectationsabout the likelihood and consequences of pregnancy. Australian teenagers are putting themselves at risk of pregnancy and STI.

Teenagers are the most frequent users of emergency contraception at Australian Family Planning clinics, 45% of sexually activeAustralian high-school students do not use condoms consistently, and 31% use condoms without another form of contraception.

As teenagers delay seeking prescription contraception for an average of one year after initiating sexual activity, it is perhaps not surprising that half of adolescent pregnancies occur in the first 6 months of sexual activity. For this reason, and the fact that younger age is a strong risk factor for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection, effective prevention strategies must include young adolescents, ideally before they become sexually active.

Supporting young people and parents through standardised, comprehensive and age appropriate relationships and sexual health education is a critical intervention to ensure children are aware of protective behaviours and the issues they need to be prepared for in the 21st Century.

Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection is one of the most common notifiable diseases in Australia, and the notification rate has been increasing over the past 10 years.

Most Chlamydia trachomatis infections occur in the under-25-years age group. As the infection is often asymptomatic, reported incidence rates are likely to be under estimates. Failure to systematically address this problem could potentially result in this being one of the most infertile generations in the history of Australia.

While Australia racks up more grim statistics, the variation in quality of sex education in schools across Australia goes from the sublime to the ridiculous. On one hand, you have the evidence–basedFocus Schools Relationships and Sexual Health Education program run by SHine SA, and on the other hand, some schools just offer a one off lecture on plumbing and diseases by a visiting speaker from a nearby health clinic.

Research into health education in schools, be it drugs or sex, demonstrates that the best results are afforded by the regular classroom teacher appropriately trained and resourced. SHine SA began training South Australian teachers to deliver relationships and sexual health education in schools. Since then, 1500 teachers have undergone training. SHine SA expects that by the end of this year, 60% of state secondary schools (years 8, 9 &10) will be have undergone such training.

Let's hope that the state and territory governments, which have the responsibility for sex education, recognise the importance of this issue, particularly in light of the tidal wave of child sexual abuse cases and act quickly.

One way they could avoid re-inventing the wheel, would be to take note of the South Australian initiative and in the absence of a national education curriculum, adopt a version of the Focus Schools Relationships and Sexual Health Education program.

One thing is clear, the Australian Government will need to show leadership that ensures government policy on relationships and sexual health in schools is contextualised within a health and relationship context rather than just a moral one.

Medicare rebate for Psychologists a success

2008-06-25T02:40:00.000-07:00

The extent of the community need for treatment of mental health problems has been clearly demonstrated by the high uptake of the Better Access to Mental Health Care Medicare items.

In March 2008 the Australian Psychological Society (APS) conducted a survey to investigate use of the items among psychologists. Over 2000 psychologists who provide Medicare funded services under the Better Access initiative responded to the survey, 649 of these being Clinical Psychologists.

They reported that approximately 73% of their clients would not have been able to access psychological services without a Medicare rebate, demonstrating the huge, previously unmet need of the Australian population for access to affordable psychological treatment.

The results show that Medicare funded psychological services are reaching a population with very significant psychological needs, with psychologists in both city and country locations reporting that 81% of clients that they have seen under the initiative presented with psychological disorders in the moderate to severe range.

Other survey results show that:

Services offered in regional, rural and remote locations are in accord with Medicare data indicating that 20% of clinical psychologists and 23% of registered psychologists provide services in these areas. This has led to a significant increase in psychological treatment offered in locations where there were previously few mental health services available.

Of the Medicare funded psychological services offered in regional, rural and remote locations, both the APS survey and the newly released Medicare data indicate that approximately 50% of services in these areas are bulk billed by psychologists. Of those services that are not bulk-billed the average gap payment remains low at around $28 - $32, similar to gap payments offered by GPs for a long consultation and significantly lower than gap payments for psychiatry item numbers under this initiative.

Psychologists reported that around 81% of clients seen under the Better Access initiative are new clients to their practice, and of these, 72% had never seen a psychologist before.
A range of ages are represented in the client groups, with psychologists reporting that 36% of people seen under the initiative were 25 years and under, 57% were aged between 26 to 65 years, and 7% aged over 65 years.

The most common mental health disorders treated under the initiative were anxiety and depressive disorders with psychotic disorders, drug and alcohol disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and adjustment disorder being the next most common presentations.

The survey results showed that the majority of clients require and complete between 5 and 12 sessions (approximately 70%). However, a substantial number of clients (14 - 17%) were found to require more than 12 sessions.

So - not that it is fashionable to say - this is a great legacy of the Howard Government, lets hope that Mr Rudd and Ms Roxon will have the good grace to acknowledge it.

Senatorial Stupidity

2008-06-20T02:53:00.000-07:00

A recent Senate enquiry, due to deliver its findings later this month, is expected to recommend that Teenage girl magazines like Girlfriend and Dolly be restricted for sale to those over 15.
There have been some massively retrograde steps in public health, but this one would take the biscuit.

Social commentators like Mia Freedman have described such a move as “counterproductive and ultimately irresponsible”. If the so-called experts behind this recommendation had gotten of their high moralistic horse for a second they would have discovered that age does not equal maturity in 2008.

The average age that young woman had their first period at the turn of the century was 16 and now it’s just over 10 years of age, This is called developmental compression and in plain english it means that the physical development of the young person is rushing ahead of their cognitive and emotional maturity.

This is the first generation whose brain is out of sync with their bodies. The plain fact is that a 13 year old with a 16 year olds body needs accurate up to date and reliable information about sex more than ever. They are like brand new cars, with sleek lines, and a roaring engine, but the driver has no license.

Now a bunch of adult do-gooders in the Senate are about to decide that it is only to be when these young people reach the magical age of 16, that they requires information about sex, as if the seeking of information in itself - means that within a blink of an eye, hoards of teenage girls will be satisfying their carnal lust behind the bike sheds after school.

Knowledge is power and the only result to be achieved by this heavy handed, unthinking, recommendation would be to replace knowledge with ignorance.

But in the fairy tale world of the Senators who will make this recommendation, they fantasize that all children will sit entranced around a nuclear-family’s dining room table, as their parents who magically aren’t time poor, aren’t struggling to make ends meet, (as petrol prices climb into the stratosphere), have the energy and knowledge to sensitively and thoughtfully outline the in’s and out’s of human sexuality and answer all the questions in a state of serene calm.

According to the sage Senate committee, magazines like Dolly and Girlfriend are now superfluous because baby boomers parents are apparently so comfortable with their own sexuality and aren’t at all embarrassed about talking about condoms, spermicidal creams or morning after pills and they can reel off a list of the best and most credible websites to visit and have a stack of pamphlets from the local Family Planning clinic all ready to go, in case their beloved cherub pops the question.

There is no doubt that the thought of our children ever having sex is confronting and the truth is with the internet and peers they will not always come to you with their questions about sexuality.

While Dolly and Girlfriend are not perfect, they are trusted and familiar sources of responsible information about sex, written by respected sexual health specialists like Dr Sally Cockburn, aka Dr Feelgood.

In a written submission to the Senate enquiry, the Dolly Doctor, Dr Melissa Kang states: "Sexual content in the Dolly Doctor section combines evidence-based, factual information with broader discussion about healthy sexual development, self-awareness, respect, relationships, communication and practical guidance about where and how to get help and support, including talking to parents as appropriate."

If the Senate committee makes this recommendation, then they will be forcing hundreds of thousands of young women to rely solely on the internet for their information. They may like to try goggling the words ‘teenage’ and ‘ sex’ and see what young people will have to rely on. Take a bow Senators!

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is an adolescent psychologist and the psychologist for Girlfriend Magazine

The Happening that should never have happened

2008-06-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Imagine a film that opens with a shot of people strolling on a sunny morning in New York's Central Park, and a gentle wind rustling through the trees. Suddenly, the strollers all come to a halt, seemingly rooted in place. People start to get confused, repeating their words and sometimes walking backwards. We hear a lone scream in the distance, then, nearer by, a fearful voice: "Is that blood?" Then a woman sitting on a bench pulls out a little stick that's knotted in her hair and jams it into her jugular vein.

A cop on the road shoots himself in the head. A driver gets out of his car, takes the gun, and also shoots himself in the head. We see a pair of high heels walk over and a hand starts to pick up the gun. meanwhile on a building site, workers start to walk calmly off the top of the building, crunching down to earth.. What's going on? Well, as one character says shortly thereafter, prefiguring the verbal fizz to come, "There seems to be some sort of event happening."

Welcome to 'The Happening', a red hot contender for one of the worst movies ever made and currently in a movie theatre near you. Put aside the 'what-the-hell' plot, lobotomized dialogue and B-movie performances from a non entity cast, The Happening is a movie that with its graphic and repeated depictions of violent suicides has created a firestorm of controversy.

My worry stems from a number of studies demonstrating an Increased rate of suicides up to ten days after a television report.[Phillips,David P. (May 1982). "The Impact of Fictional Television Stories onU.S. Adult Fatalities: New Evidence on the Effect of the Mass Media onViolence". The American Journal of Sociology 87 (6): 1340-59]

Studies in Japan [Stack S. (1996) The effect of the media on suicide:evidence from Japan, 1955-1985. Suicide Life Threat Behav., 26 (2):132-42 ] and Germany [Jonas K. (1992) Modelling and suicide: a testof the Werther effect. Br J Soc Psychol., Dec;31 (Pt 4):295-306] havereplicated findings of an imitative effect.

One of the earliest known associations between the media and suicidearose from Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrowsof Young Werther), published in 1774. In that work the hero shootshimself after an ill-fated love, and shortly after its publicationthere were many reports of young men using the same method to commitsuicide. This resulted in a ban of the book in several places. Hencethe term "Werther effect", used in the technical literature todesignate copycat suicides.

The Australian Psychological Society, among other mental health organisations have expressed grave concerns over the MA classification given to this movie. They rightly argue that this film should receive an R classification instead of the MA rating.

In Australia, every film (including videos and DVDs) and computer game, whether produced locally or overseas, has to be classified before it can be made legally available to the public. The Classification Review Board meets as needed to review classification decisions made by the Classification Board.

But this is generally in response to an application for review from the original applicant for classification, or the publisher of the film, when there is disagreement about the original decision.
The Minister, on his own behalf or at the request of a State or Territory Censorship Minister, can also apply for the review of a decision. A 'person aggrieved' by the decision can also apply for a review.When an application for review is received, the Review Board convenes to consider the material and hear submissions by the applicant and other parties with an interest in the decision.
APS President, Amanda Gordon has called on the Classification Board to urgently review this rating. “Not only does this movie romanticise and sensationalise suicide, but it depicts many different methods of achieving that end. There is good evidence that the reporting of suicides can lead to copycat behavior, and there are many instances of increased suicide rates following media portrayals of suicide.

So why is the mental health community up in arms? Simple, the more detailed the descriptions or portrayals of the suicide, the greater the risk that vulnerable people, including young people or people with mental health problems, may harm themselves.

Psychologists have grave concerns that we will see a real increase in both suicide attempts and successful suicides, as a result of people viewing this movie. The most vulnerable, including young people, would at least be afforded some level of protection if it received a higher rating by the Classification Board.

We have media guidelines for the reporting of suicide, and classification systems for films for very good reasons”, says Gordon. “What better reason is there than the protection of vulnerable people in our society?”

She's right, but only a public outcry will get this movie reclassified, it is time for all readers of this blog, to contact their local MP and ask for reclassification. Failure to take a stand on this film, may open the door for even more damaging material in the future. Young people may be only 17% of the population, but they are 100% of the future - a future that deserves to be protected.

-- Dr Michael Carr-Gregg
http://www.michaelcarr-gregg.com.au/

Needless teenage road deaths

2008-06-09T01:29:00.001-07:00

Just yesteday (8th Jun 2008)a 16-year-old girl dies and 13 young people were taken to hospital, after an overloaded ute rolled on a paddock near Wagga Wagga and two young men died in a fireball in Ausrtral, NSW. As an adolescent psychologist, I wonder how many more young lives will have to be lost before Governments around Australia wake up to the factthat immature brains, hormones and cars don't mix. Surely its time to trial the car chip concept, a tiny "black box" data logger with software for monitoring speeding and driver tendencies. Knowing that the car's speed is being monitored would provide an additional break on teenage impulsivityand enable parents who are worried about their child's sensation-seeking temperament to check up on how they are driving. Teenagers who are responsible will have nothing to fear. It's time to protect the teen brain from itself.

Alcopops Tax not enough

2008-06-06T00:21:00.001-07:00

Alcohol is one of the most abused substances in the Australian community. Alcohol providers are targeting young people in particular in advertising and media, and through providing an increasing array of attractive ready-to-drink mixed drinks. A major culture change is required to assist Australians in cutting down alcohol abuse and in particular binge drinking, which affects individuals, families and whole communities.

The Australian Psychological Society supports the government's 70% tax on ‘alcopops', but argues that the tax should be extended to all but low alcohol content drinks.

"Alcohol is the most abused substance in Australian society and the costs to the community are very high" said APS President Amanda Gordon. "New ways to discourage teenage binge drinking are important in tackling Australian booze culture." But Gordon says that by itself, a tax on ‘alcopops' is not enough.

The tax on ‘alcopops' is an example of one attempt at demand reduction, which are strategies designed to prevent the uptake of harmful alcohol use. However, the APS's recently developed Position Statement on Substance Use argues that a comprehensive and multi-faceted range of prevention and treatment approaches are needed to address this complex issue. These approaches need to include supply reduction (strategies designed to control the supply of alcohol) and harm reduction (strategies designed to reduce alcohol-related harm for individuals and communities), as well as a diverse range of effective demand reduction strategies.

While the ‘alcopop' tax is an example of a targeted measure designed to offset the enticement of young people into an alcohol-soaked culture, such legislation-by itself-will not change Australia's drinking culture.

Leave the emos alone....

2008-06-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

In September last year, a 13-year-old Emo schoolgirl called Hannah Bond, hanged herself in her bedroom in Essex and led the Daily Mail to start an all out war on what the paper called ‘the sinister cult of Emo’.

The newspaper accused US Emo band My Chemical Romance of encouraging suicide, glorifying self-harm and romanticising death and alleged they were responsible for Hannah’s death. It is they said, ‘a largely teenage trend and is characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide.’
Annoyed over their portrayal by the Mail, last weekend in the UK, Emo’s marched on the Mail headquarters, vociferously denying all charges made against them.

While most Herald Sun readers will have never heard of Gerard Way or his band My Chemical Romance - they will have caught a glimpse of Emo young people , complete with heavy mascara, floppy, dark fringes with a chunk dyed a brighter colour, almost always clad in black skinny jeans and studded belts, topped with a skin-tight T-shirt or shirt to emphasise a skinny frame black, with stove pipe jeans and the ubiquitous Converse All Star shoes.

These are Emos, a depressing if essentially non-violent youth sub-culture who enjoy their outsider status and a particularly anguish-laden brand of punk-pop.

If the Daily Mail had consulted an adolescent psychologist, they would have learnt that they are suffering from amnesia, as Emo’s are essentially harmless teenagers who like, the mods and the rockers, punks, Goths and Metalheads of old, simply enjoy listening to a particular brand of music and dressing in a most distinctive fashion.

Like many youth subcultures before them, being an Emo enables young people to psychologically emancipate from their adult caregivers, adopt an identity which is really different and identify with Emo music and lyrics which acts like a release valve, helping them deal with all the negative energy and Emotion inside them.
The Emo preoccupation with inner torment, alienation and misery, is undeniably disconcerting to some adults, particularly with lyrics like this:

Have you heard the news that you're dead?
No one ever had much nice to sayI think they never liked you anyway
Oh take me from the hospital bed
Wouldn't it be grand to take a pistol by the hand?
And wouldn't it be great if we were dead?

Dead - by My Chemical Romance

Parents often forget that teenagers can and do make a distinction between fact and fantasy, and there is no credible evidence that listening to lyrics like this causes suicide or self harm. If there was an automatic relationship between listening to such lyrics and suicide – we’d have no teenagers left!

Ironically, being a goth seems to offers a peer support network, which is quite empowering. That says 'we're not mainstream, but we have each other’. The Emo culture has been described as nothing more sinister than an outlet for a generation creaking under the weight of social expectation.

The musical roots of Emo lie in the 1980s US hardcore punk scene, when some bands pioneered a heart-on-sleeve subgenre known as "Emo-core" or "Emotional hardcore". A move towards a more mainstream, poppy sound by several Emo leading lights took it mainstream.
As far as Hannah’ Bond’s death was concerned, while evidence presented to the Coroner suggested that she was obsessed with My Chemical Romance - it is too simplistic to blame suicide on various youth subcultures and their emphasis on alienation and loneliness.

After Hannah’s death, the band posted the following message on its web site:

“My Chemical Romance are and always have been vocally anti-violence and anti-suicide. As a band, we have always made it one of our missions through our actions to provide comfort, support, and solace to our fans. The message and theme of our album “The Black Parade” is hope and courage. Our lyrics are about finding the strength to keep living through pain and hard times. The last song on our album states: “I am not afraid to keep on living” - a sentiment that embodies the band’s position on hardships we all face as human beings."

Despite, media speculation focusing on teenage subcultures, and various types of music - suicide is a behavioural outcome, in which social, psychological, neurobiological and cultural variables all contribute to produce the end result. The problem for Hannah’s family and others left behind with their agonising questioning, is that these contributing factors carry unequal weight.
So before we get hysterical, its important to remember that no one single factor has been dEmonstrated to be necessary or sufficient to cause suicide. Therefore for anyone to blame Goths, Emo’s or Metals is just nonsense. Leave them alone...

Latest Self Harm figures from Australia....

2008-06-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

The expression "a curate's egg" originally meant something that is partly good and partly bad, but as a result is entirely ruined. The phrase derives from a cartoon in the humorous British magazine Punch on 9 November 1895. Drawn by George du Maurier and entitled "True Humility", it pictured a timid-looking curate (a low-ranking clergyman) taking breakfast in his bishop's house. The bishop says, "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones." The curate replies, "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"

This very much describes the latest report released this week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on young people’s health. The good news was that the report found that the youth suicide rate continues to decline, unfortunately hospitalization rates for deliberate self-harm among young people increased by 43% between 1996 and 2006. The increase was much greater for young women (a 51% increase) than for young men (a 27% increase),’

Hospitalization rates for intentional self-harm were more than twice as high for young women than for young men, however young men have a suicide rate almost four times that of young women.

The results beg the question of what would induce a young person to engage in such behaviour, and why this would be on the rise, especially for young women.

Clinical experience suggests that most teenagers who self harm have endured tough times. The beautiful girl in year 10 who had her hair set on fire by a group of ‘mean girls’ and who a few months later began to cut herself, or the girl who’s estranged father died from a brain tumour who following his death, would smash her head against a wall for hours. Others were trying to cope with the pain of physical or sexually abuse, relationship break up, and various problems with family, school or peer groups.

So such self-harm is often used by young people as a way to cope with negative experiences and the strong feelings associated with it. Self-harmers tell me that they do it because it is functional – it serves a purpose and these purposes differ.

Some say that it gives them a way to express difficult feelings such as anger, sadness, grief or hurt. While others, who feel unable to use words instead employ self harm to communicate to people that they need help. Still others say self harm, provide them with a feeling of control, especially when they feel as if other things in their life are out of control.

There is no denying that for young people such self harm can afford them an immediate sense of relief however after a while many realise that it is only a temporary solution. The downside is that it can also cause permanent scarring and nerve damage.

If your son or daughter engages in such behaviour, don’t over react, don’t dismiss or trivialise their reasons but instead focus on alleviating their stress, and getting them to learn to cope without harming themselves, above all get professional help.

As to why this behaviour has increased, take your pick from a combination of growing up in a secular, disconnected society, high levels of separation and divorce, rampant spiritual anorexia, the lack of ritual and tradition, increasing academic pressure, alcohol and drug abuse, early sexualisation of young women, mental health problems and time poor parents who simply are too exhausted to spend time with their children.

I don’t know what the curate or his bishop would make of the fact that 7,000 young people fronted up to hospitals with self harm last year, but it seems that for some young people growing up in Australia, it seems as though their eggs are scrambled.

The question is how many young Australians didn't turn up to the hospital after self harming? If you do a conservative estimate - I reckon you could triple that figure...