Children and young people are essential voices and forces for change in public health, yet they are not included in climate discussions and decision-making. In today’s post, public health researchers from Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation (@IHT_Deakin) Grace Arnot (@GraceArnot), Dr Hannah Pitt (@HannahLPitt) and Dr Simone McCarthy (@SimoneNicoleM) highlight the important knowledge and experience that children and young people have, and call for their greater inclusion in climate decision-making and public health governance.
Read More
The Together Home program's success in NSW shows how stable housing and personalised support offer a new route to improving lives and fostering wellbeing among the homeless.
Read More
Within mental health research and service delivery, involvement of experts by experience has become increasingly common. The involvement of experts by experience allows for the design and delivery of research that is of higher quality and more rigorous.
Transitioning out of youth-focussed lived experience groups is a matter that is not well understood and, for many reasons, complex. It can be difficult to transition from the role of being a young contributor to research into a professional in the Public and Patient Involvement space. Working in lived experience roles, either as ‘lived experience practitioners’, ‘peer support workers’, ‘PPI facilitators’ or ‘involvement officers’ can be complex and the relationships you hold in these spaces vary depending on your positioning within either the group or the organisation (Carr, 2019).
In this blog we explore the experience of Beckye, a former Youth Advisory Group (YAG) member for the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Mental Health as she begins the making this transition into an employee in a Youth Involvement Officer. The blog takes the form of responses to an with Beckye (Youth Involvement Officer) and Niyah (Senior Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Lead). The interview offers early reflections that may be of use to organisations or individuals who may be supporting folk undertaking these transitions or in the process of negotiating the transition themselves.
Read More
Every young person has a right to evidence-based education to support their sexual health and wellbeing. But Australian schools continue to skirt around the S-E-X word, preach abstinence or throw some bananas and condoms in the break room and hope for the best. As Brianna Delahunty and Linnea Burton Smith from the ERA’s Young Women’s Advisory Group argue, Australians deserve inclusive, safe and respectful education that prepares them for the real world and real relationships.
Read More
Dr Meera Varadharajan highlights a stark lack of cultural diversity within the Australian philanthropic sector and offers 16 actionable recommendations.
Read More
Dr Millie Rooney, co-director of Australia Remade and long-time contributor here at Power to Persuade, has had some great ideas for new reality TV shows, following the success of ‘Alone Australia’. The question is - do we have contestants going it alone to survive, or a team effort to re-imagine a way for everyone to thrive?
Read More
Deb Tsorbaris (@DebTsorbaris), CEO of The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (@CFECFW), discusses the recently launched national wellbeing framework, Measuring What Matters, and contends that if we're serious about enhancing the wellbeing of Australians, the first place to start is with our children and young people.
Read More
Not too long ago a global survey named Australia the ‘drunkest country in the world.’ Meanwhile, studies are increasingly emphasising that there is no ‘healthy’ or ‘safe’ level of drinking. In today’s post, VicHealth (@VicHealth) Postdoctoral Fellow Florentine Martino (@FP_Martino) of Deakin University (@IHT_Deakin) discusses how the Australian alcohol industry influences health policy through its registered charity DrinkWise.
Read More
While COVID-19 is no longer considered a global emergency, Chris Hartley discusses its enduring effects on homelessness policy and practice.
Read More
In today’s post, Deb Tsorbaris discusses the sobering findings of the landmark Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) released in April this year, and the need for policymakers and the child services sector to respond swiftly. The study reveals that child maltreatment is widespread in Australia and associated with early and persistent harm. Deb is the CEO at The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, (@CFECFW), Victoria’s peak body for child and family services.
Read More
Today’s post by Brandon Maki was commissioned by the Antipoverty Centre. Brandon is on the Disability Support Pension (DSP) and has written about the income free area and the focus of pushing people into work.
Read More
Today’s post from the Australian Unemployed Worker’s Union discusses the report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt scheme released on 7 July 2023. AUWU describes the Royal Commission as “the most significant and damning investigation into our welfare system in decades” and pledges to “stand with victims and fight to extract justice for the mass abuse and denigration inflicted on the poor.”
Read More
LGBTIQA+ people are more likely to experience marginalisation, stigma, social exclusion, abuse, and violence than the wider community. Philippa Moss, CEO of ACT-based LGBTIQA+ peer-led health service Meridian, and Alison Barclay, researcher and social impact consultant, explain how peer-led services are helping to address this gap, and what more needs to be done.
Read More