A recent article published on the Children & Young People Now website cautions against the increasing medicalisation of children.  Read the article here: http://bit.ly/ngfijQ

The Youth Educating Peers (YEP) Project was a two-year participatory action research project that aimed to investigate the value of peer based programs in youth sector settings for sexual health and blood borne virus education and promotion. In partnering with six WA youth agencies to trial the development of these programs, the Project also aimed to get sexual health back on the agenda for the WA youth sector.

The final report of the research is now available for download on the YACWA website http://www.yacwa.org.au/content.php?CID=117.

Limited hard copies of the report are also available. Please contact Olivia Knowles on pso@yacwa.org.au if you would like to receive a copy.

 

The hidden side of antidepressants: are they putting young lives at risk?

In early 2009, two 16-year-old Queensland girls tragically hanged themselves within weeks of each other. The girls' lives were plagued with abuse, self-harm and illicit drug use, and their deaths raised questions about the quality of care provided for troubled teens in the state.

A recent article in The Australian newspaper asked whether the antidepressant drugs prescribed to these girls may have contributed to their deaths.

This certainly isn’t the first time antidepressants have been linked to suicide. Think of Columbine’s Eric Harris, Australian newsreader Charmaine Dragun, and Daniel Smith, the son of celebrity Anna-Nicole Smith – all were likely harmed rather than helped by their antidepressant medication.

The issue of whether antidepressant use can trigger suicide, self-harm and violence in young people has been vigorously debated in recent years, but the argument has often generated more heat than light.

Let’s take a look at the evidence.

This major project research report by TakingITGlobal founder Jennifer Corriero contains combined outcomes from an online survey, online consultation, and individual in-depth interviews with young people who have taken action to address challenges facing their communities in countries around the world.

by Christine Halse, Anne Honey and Desiree Boughtwood

While the primary focus of media attention and medical treatment is the individual's battle with anorexia nervosa, research from University of Western Sydney reveals that anorexia can have a long term impact on the physical, social, and psychological well-being of the entire family.

Prue Holzer, National Child Protection Clearinghouse

This Fact Sheet was prepared to coincide with National Child Protection Week, 7-13 September 2008. It presents an overview of child protection in Australia, including how child abuse and neglect is defined, its prevalence, the costs of child maltreatment, and prevention and early intervention strategies. Read the full text of Child protection in Australia. "Children see. Children do. Make your influence positive" at  http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/fs1/fs1.html.

This report, published by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs sets the context for suicide prevention activity, summarising current research, evidence and statistics relating to suicide and suicide prevention in Australia. It includes material on suicide risk and protective factors for suicide, suicide trends and comparisons, evidence of what works in suicide prevention and a discussion of the Living Is For Everyone (LIFE) suicide prevention model.

Read the full report at http://tinyurl.com/6o4eh2.

Source: Australian Policy Online

By Rob Moodie
First Posted Wednesday, 9 July 2008 at On Line Opinion

"Child abuse and neglect is not just a family problem and something to be solved by social workers, police and the courts. It is a whole-of-nation problem. Although we do not have a national study to show its prevalence, we know reported cases are on the rise and that our "treatment systems" are straining to cope."

By Rob Salter
First Posted at On Line Opinion Monday, 21 April 2008

What drives us to care for the disadvantaged among us? Usually it’s a belief that this is right or just, or perhaps we’ve witnessed, read or heard about someone in need, and it’s tugged at our heart strings.  It’s good that we have these motives: kindness and justice are foundation stones of a civilised society. But they’re not the only reasons why we should provide for the disadvantaged. Increasingly, experience and research is demonstrating that it’s also good economics...

The UK's National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) undertook a review of the literature on the impact of the voice of young people on policy and practice, and on young people themselves.

Lack of access to appropriate and affordable housing has become a national problem. National Shelter reports Australia-wide 1.2 Million households are in housing stress and 100,000 people are homeless on any one night. The situation in Brisbane is no different with 40% of low-income households experiencing housing stress in 2005. Brisbane North Housing Solutions (a branch of Qld Shelter) has recently completed research into housing affordability in the northern suburbs of Brisbane.

You can download their full report from: http://www.qshelter.asn.au/files/Housing Affordability in Brisbane's Northern Suburbs.pdf.

First Posted at Australian Policy Online , 12-09-2007.

This study investigates the economic case for the implementation of the Triple P Positive Parenting Program on a population basis in Queensland, Australia, in order to reduce the prevalence of conduct disorder in children. It concludes that Triple P is likely to be a worthwhile use of limited health funds.

In this paper, Tom Calma (HREOC's Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner) argues that:

1. multiculturalism is a sound policy framework consistent with HREOC’s legislative mandate to promote understanding, respect and friendship among racial and ethnic groups in Australia and to combat prejudices that lead to racial discrimination.
2. Multiculturalism is also a set of norms or principles compatible with HREOC’s vision for an Australian society in which the human rights of all are respected, protected and promoted. In particular it resonates with a notion of equality which enables all Australians to participate fully in the social, cultural, economic and political life in Australia irrespective of race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.
3. Finally, multiculturalism, both as policy and as principles, supports the ideals of a democratic society in which every person is free and equal in dignity and rights.
   

To download the paper, or order hardcopies visit: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/racial_discrimination/multiculturalism

By Natasha Chow.  Posted Monday, 27 August 2007 to On Line Opinion .

The great Aussie dream is dying. Owning a beautiful house with a Jamie Durie-styled garden is an unobtainable fantasy for many young Australians due to the nation’s current housing affordability crisis. With soaring rent and exorbitant housing prices - it’s practically impossible for young people to move out of home let alone even consider buying their first house.

In this research brief, the Australian Institute of Criminology outline some of the main components that are evident in successful 'boot camps' or wilderness retreats.

In mid August 2007, ABC’s JTV program did a story on young people and trade unions. Reporter Steve Cannane spoke to several people including Anthony Main Secretary of UNITE, Jeff Lawrence Secretary of the ACTU and Danielle Archer from the Young Unionist Network in Victoria to get some different points of view.

To watch the video (8 minutes) visit http://www.abc.net.au/jtv/video/segment_HACK.htm?clip=unionism.

Source: www.unite.org.au

While housing & homelessness continues to be the most common issue of concern amongst youth interagencies in Queensland, readers may be interested in this comparison (below) of the housing policies of the major parties prepared by National Shelter.

In early 2007, the Youth Action and Policy Association (YANQ's counterpart in NSW) conducted a survey looking at young people and skills, including the issue of skills and training in the welfare system. Responding to the current skills shortage in Australia and given that young people will play a major role in possible solutions, the survey addressed young people's views and opinions on initiatives and concepts related to skills and training.

In November 2006, Queensland Community Housing Coalition Ltd, Bond University and LandPartners entered into a joint venture agreement to produce an industry research paper based on the following objectives:

• To identify how the planning system in Queensland impacts on housing affordability and its supply.
• To engage stakeholders, through separate focus group sessions in order to identify common ground in relation to  planning issues and AffordableHousing.
• To conduct a literature review of examples identified by the Focus Groups assuccessful in the provision of Affordable Housing.
• To examine regulatory planning tools and incentive based options in providing Affordable Housing.
• To develop recommendations for planning reform.

The Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health Volume 6, Issue 2 (July 2007) is online at http://www.auseinet.com/journal/vol6iss2/index.php .

Articles in this edition which may be of interest to those in the youth sector include:

• Editorial: On the impact of television on young people
• Finding a place for healing: Women survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their experience of accessing services
  
• Detection and management of eating disorders by general practitioners in regional Australia
  
• The construction of youth suicide as a community issue within urban and regional Australia
• AIMHI NT ‘Mental Health Story Teller Mob’: developing stories in mental health
• Reducing risk factors for adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: A pilot randomised controlled trial of a self-administered parenting intervention
• ‘They just don’t care’: The experiences of mental health consumers in a Queensland bush community.

By Dawn Joyce
First published at On Line Opinion , 25 July 2007

The excellent documentary film The Road to Guantanamo is the story of a group of British boys on a holiday that evolves into a bizarre and unfortunate adventure.

As with the road to Guantanamo, so with the road to Gatton: the whirlwinds of war and schizophrenia sweep innocents into prisons. What I find surprising is the equanimity with which survivors from both groups accept their prison experiences: what doesn’t destroy you can strengthen you.

By David Peetz and Alison Preston
First published at Online Opinion , 20 July 2007

In introducing the “WorkChoices” reforms the federal government argued that they would encourage increased wages, particularly through Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) which it actively encourages. Indeed, we were told (and still are told) that AWAs pay higher wages than collective agreements and nearly double what awards pay.

We obtained unpublished data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Employee Earnings and Hours (EEH) Survey for May 2006 (released March 2007), to examine whether this was the case: in what circumstances and in what ways do AWAs affect earnings, particularly by comparison with collective agreements, which are actively discouraged by the WorkChoices legislation.

Jumping at Shadows

By John Tomlinson.
First published at Online Opinion, July 17, 2007. 

Dr Mohammed Haneef was detained for questioning under Australia’s terrorism legislation following his second cousins being implicated in an attack on Glasgow’s Airport terminal building and failed car bomb attack in England.

An old mobile phone SIM card, Dr Haneef had owned, was allegedly found in the Jeep that was used in the failed attack on Glasgow airport.

Initially I, like many others, assumed that Dr Haneef would be questioned for a maximum of 24 hours in a seven-day period and either charged with a serious offence or released. This was before Ruddock, Downer and Howard got into the act.

Source: Commission for Children and Young People 

The Child Guardian Report 2006 has revealed Indigenous children in out-of-home care are over-represented in the number of serious concerns raised about their quality of care.

The report, released by the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian, reports on children and young people in the child safety system in Queensland.

Towards the end of 2006, The Create Foundation conducted a number of focus groups with young people, as a means to hear how young people wish to be consulted or give feedback; the who, what, when, where, why, how of consulting.

Little children are sacred: Report of the NT Board of Inquiry into the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse

The Board of Inquiry was created by the Northern Territory Government in August 2006 to research and report on allegations of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. The Inquiry was established to find better ways to protect Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.

The full report is now available: Little children are sacred: Report of the NT Board of Inquiry into the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse (PDF file).  Or you can read a Summary of the report.

This research project entitled No Vagrancy: An examination of the impact of the criminal justice system on people living in poverty in Queensland  by Dr Tamara Walsh has been undertaken with a number of partners and was launched on the 14th June 2007. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Queenslanders living in poverty are more likely to attract police attention, come before the courts, be incarcerated, and are less able to gather supports around them. It appears that marginalised people are being treated unfairly at all stages of the criminal justice system and that this is an increasing and disturbing trend.  In this project we investigate and document the experiences of this group in order to frame effective responses including public education, systems advocacy and institutional reform.

Media release 13th June 2007

You can view a Summary of the No Vagrancy report with recommendations or view the full No Vagrancy Report.

The Consequences Aren't Minor: The Impact of Trying Youth as Adults and Strategies for Reform

The report from the United States contains "comprehensive information on the processes and policies that send youth to the adult criminal justice system, data on who is affected and real-life examples of individual youth who have been personally affected" by laws approved during the unjustified hysteria generated by the myth of "roving bands of super-violent youth" (p. 4). Chapters cover: how a youth ends up in the adult justice system; key findings; the opportunity for change; and recommendations.

Read it online at http://nicic.org/Library/022218.

The Better Together report was released in the US in 2000 and called for a nationwide campaign to redirect a downward spiral of civic apathy. The report warned that the US's national stockpile of "social capital" was seriously depleted and outlined the framework for sustained, broad-based social change to restore America’s civic virtue.

Thinking Drinking II: From Problems to Solutions was a conference that took place in Melbourne in February 2007. The conference sought to identify and advance solutions to problems associated with the abuse and misuse of alcohol.

Presentations from the conference are now available online at http://www.adf.org.au/article.asp?ContentID=TDII_Presentations.

The pursuit of political equality is one of the four underpinning values of the Democratic Audit of Australia. In this new paper, Audit leader Marian Sawer reviews the state of Australian democracy in relation to this core principle. Restrictions on voting, a lack of transparency surrounding political finance, and the use of public money for party political ends are some of the areas in which Australia currently fails to measure up.

Read the full text of Political equality in Australia (PDF file).

Source: Australian Policy Online

Outrageous! Moral panics in Australia.  Edited by by Scott Poynting and George Morgan from the University of Western Sydney.  The book costs $39.95.

What was Cronulla about? What really prompted 5000 people to take the beach to bash people of 'Middle Eastern' appearance? When Macquarie Fields exploded into flames as Molotov cocktails were hurled at police, was it just a car crash that provoked the residents? Why did the Indigenous community on Palm Island react so violently to Mulrunji's death in custody?

According to a recent report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Australian governments are failing their obligation to implement the right to adequate housing.

The report calls for immediate action to remedy a national housing crisis that is affecting not just the homeless and the poor, but also increasingly low and middle income households.

In 2002, QCOSS and the School of Management at Griffith University conducted a research project in Logan City, investigating how partnerships between community, business, government and education/research institutions operate and can be improved.

The report (Maximising Community Business Partnerships: Relationships between Third Sector, Government, Educational and Business Organisations in Logan City) from the project looks at the broader context in which 'partnerships' are being promoted - specifically through the rise of 'Third Way' politics.  The report also provides some useful and practical information about what is needed to make partnerships on the ground work.

This report, released in May by the AIHW, shows that the majority of those receiving assistance from a SAAP service were young women aged 15-19.  Accompanying children aged 0 to 4 years also had a high rate of use.

This report provides an overview of assistance given to clients and their accompanying children by the program during the financial year 2005-06, and is accompanied by state and territory supplementary reports. Read about the report at: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10419

Source: Youth Field Xpress, newsletter of the Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies.

"Lighting the path - reflections on counselling, young women and sexual assault" explores feminist counselling practice with young women who have experienced sexual violence. It is written by 22 grassroots sexual assault counsellors from across Australia.

The book has recently been launched by Zig Zag Young Women's Resource Centre.

In their recent newsletter, the Druginfo Clearing House suggested that there is plenty of evidence about the harmful effects of alcohol and other drugs on the people who use them as well as on family members and friends.

What Young People are Thinking (a new report from the Dusseldorp Skills Form )reveals a positive picture concerning young Australian’s current general life satisfaction, and also in relation to their optimism about their personal future.

Last week Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard launched the Australian Services Union's (ASU) discussion paper titled 'Building Social Inclusion in Australia - priorities for the social and community services sector workforce'.

The ASU prepared this research as a starting point for further community and sector consultation about the issues that confront social and community services sector workers.  It can be downloaded from http://www.asu.asn.au/media/sacs/20070504_socialinclusion.html.

In this report, printed in the Sydney Morning Herald , Commissioners from the National Youth Commission (NYC) Inquiry into Youth Homelessness have said that the number of of homeless young people has doubled since the 1989 Burdekin Inquiry into youth homelessness.

Read more at the SMH's website here...

National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) recently released the summarised report "Role of VET in helping young peoples' transition into work: at a glance."

This report examines the role that vocational education and training (VET) plays in assisting the transition from school to work for young people up to 24 years of age.  It can be Downloaded now from NCVER's website.

Anne Hampshire suggests that poverty, or the failure to share in the prosperity of a nation, is not just about a lack of material goods.  She also argues in this article that, given a broad acceptance amongst the community of what poverty means, it is time that poverty and how to solve it got more of an airing in public policy debates.

Read the article at Online Opinion: Defining poverty and the things that matter in life ...

In this article on Online Opinion, Geoff Gallup argues that  Multiculturalism is based on the core democratic values of equality and human rights.

Read the full article: Freedom based on tolerance

According to David Flint, the order that prevents David Hicks from speaking to the media is draconian, because his freedom to speak is our freedom to hear.

Read the Article at Online Opinion: Hicks gag affects our liberties

By Kath Hulse, Rhonda Phillips and Terry Burke / Australian Housing Urban Research Institute.

Social housing in Australia is under pressure. Demand remains high, whilst the annual supply of vacant homes available to allocate to households has declined markedly over the last fifteen years. In this report, the authors examine in options to improve access to social housing within three separate but interrelated policy paradigms.

Read more at Australian Policy Online: Improving access to social housing: paradigms, principles and reforms.

This report, from The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, is the twelfth in a series originally titled Statistics on Drug Abuse in Australia. The report provides a comprehensive summary of major drug use statistical collections, with references to sources of more detailed information.

More information available at Australian Policy Online: Statistics on drug use in Australia 2006

The Queensland Youth Housing Coalition recently released a Homelessness Bulletin, outlining the numbers of young people homeless in Queensland as well as other useful facts.

The Housing Affordability Bulletin discusses the key issues in relation to young people’s access to housing.  It points out (among other things) that both income support measures and the Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) are insufficient to provide youngpeople on low incomes with a reasonable after housing income.

By Rob Moodie 

In this article, Rob Moodie discusses the concerning rise in binge drinking among young people alongside the reduction in smoking.

The full article is available at Online Opinion.

By Andrew Macintosh (posted on Online Opinion)

In this article Andrew Macintosh argues that drugs policy needs to focus more on harm minimisation, rather than prohibition.  A recent report by a Federal Parliamentary joint comittee agrees, arguing that "prohibition, while theoretically a logical and properly-intentioned strategy, is not effective."

Read more at Online Opinion.