Bouncing back

A new analysis of 24 years of Australian data found a long-term trend of deteriorating mental health among adolescents and young adults is now beginning to rebound.

How’s your kid doing?

Research suggests brief, repeated check-ins can provide a more accurate basis for decision-making around students’ mental health and potentially reduce the number of students flagged for further support.

Connecting the dots on youth mental illness

If our youth support programs are working, why do mental health disorders among young people continue to rise?

Medicare’s mental health check

Medicare Mental Health Check In doesn’t offer the instant back-and-forth of a chatbot. But it does offer something a chatbot can’t: an evidence-based program designed by experts and supported by a caring human.

From amok to susto

Physical symptoms and mental conditions are often shaped by different cultures and languages around the world, and Australian medical professionals should be taught to recognise them.

Back from the brink

Poor sleep, psychological distress, socioeconomic disadvantage and bad eating habits are strongly linked to greater risk of suicidal thoughts among adolescents according to new research from the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with

Every generation faces its own version of the genie in the bottle. For ours, it’s artificial intimacy. Do we let our children form bonds with machines designed to mimic emotion? Or do we help them engage in the messy, human relationships that teach empathy, patience and love?

The natural path to better mental health

Mental health services should increase their investment in lifestyle interventions to improve care and help close the 15-year life expectancy gap faced by people with mental illness, according to a new Lancet Psychiatry Commission report.

The natural way to better mental health

Regular chats with friends, time spent in nature and mentally engaging activities are strongly linked to better mental health, according to new Curtin University research that highlights the power of simple, everyday behaviours to improve well-being.

The wait

The long wait for an initial treatment session for teenagers suffering from poor mental health could be undermining their prospects of recovery.

Paging Doctor Claude

US researchers say AI chatbots such as Claude and ChatGPT could be as good as, if not better, than psychotherapists in delivering mental health therapy.

Grow up?

What is behind the spiraling rates of ‘mental illness’ among the young? Several recent books take very different views on the issue.