The Office for Youth in partnership with the Youth Affairs Council ofVictoria is pleased to introduce Taking Young People Seriously , a series of three practical handbooks to increase young people's participation in their communities:
- Consulting Young People about their Ideas and Opinions - a handbook for organisations working with young people
- Young People on Boards and Committees - a handbook for organisations working with young people
- Creating Change in your Community - a handbook for young people.
Free hard copies of the handbooks are available by calling InformationVictoria on 1300 366 356 or by downloading a copy of the publications form www.youth.vic.gov.au OR www.yacvic.org.au
24 January 2005
Taking Young People Seriously - handbooks
21 January 2005
AeJAMH, Volume 3, Issue 3 is now online and available at: http://www.auseinet.com/journal/.
The table of contents for this issue is:
- Editorial: On social justice (Graham Martin, Editor in Chief)
- Guest Editorial. Engagement of Indigenous clients in mental health services: What role do cultural differences play? (Tracy Westerman)
- Guest Editorial. Commonality, difference and confusion: Changing constructions of Indigenous mental health (Ernest Hunter)
- Guest Editorial. Moving beyond a ‘Seasonal Work Syndrome’ in mental health: Service responsibilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations (Tom Brideson)
- ‘That’s just the way he is’: Some implications of Aboriginal mental health beliefs (David Vicary and Tracy Westerman)
- Indigenous maps of subjectivity and attacks on linking: Forced separation and its psychiatric sequelae in Australia’s Stolen Generation (Leon Petchkovsky, Craig San Roque, Rachel Napaljarri Jurra and Sally Butler)
- The struggle for systematic ‘adulthood’ for Aboriginal mental health in the mainstream: The Djirruwang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health Program (Tom Brideson and Len Kanowski)
- Australian Aboriginal suicide: The need for an Aboriginal suicidology? (Terri Elliott-Farrelly)
The table of contents for this issue is:
- Editorial: On social justice (Graham Martin, Editor in Chief)
- Guest Editorial. Engagement of Indigenous clients in mental health services: What role do cultural differences play? (Tracy Westerman)
- Guest Editorial. Commonality, difference and confusion: Changing constructions of Indigenous mental health (Ernest Hunter)
- Guest Editorial. Moving beyond a ‘Seasonal Work Syndrome’ in mental health: Service responsibilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations (Tom Brideson)
- ‘That’s just the way he is’: Some implications of Aboriginal mental health beliefs (David Vicary and Tracy Westerman)
- Indigenous maps of subjectivity and attacks on linking: Forced separation and its psychiatric sequelae in Australia’s Stolen Generation (Leon Petchkovsky, Craig San Roque, Rachel Napaljarri Jurra and Sally Butler)
- The struggle for systematic ‘adulthood’ for Aboriginal mental health in the mainstream: The Djirruwang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health Program (Tom Brideson and Len Kanowski)
- Australian Aboriginal suicide: The need for an Aboriginal suicidology? (Terri Elliott-Farrelly)
WA Association for Mental Health (WAAMH) in conjunction with the WRAP Team and Ruah Inreach presents…
Community Visions for Recovery
Light refreshments will be provided.
RSVP by Friday 28 January 2005 to WAAMH on:
Tel: (08) 9420 7277
Fax: (08) 9420 7280
Email: waamh@waamh.org.au
Community Visions for Recovery
- Find out feedback from the WRAP trials
- Find out about successful Auseinet funding applications:
Ruah Inreach
WAAMH
Participate in a Consultation – “Recovery Alliance - the way forward and
Details?
Date: Tuesday 1 February 2005
Time: 1pm (for a 1.30pm start) – 3.30pm
Venue: Conference Room 7, City West Lotteries House
2 Delhi Street, West Perth, Western Australia
Light refreshments will be provided.
RSVP by Friday 28 January 2005 to WAAMH on:
Tel: (08) 9420 7277
Fax: (08) 9420 7280
Email: waamh@waamh.org.au
Low intelligence test scores in 18 year old men and risk of suicide: cohort study
Gunnell, D., Magnusson, P K E., Rasmussen, F.
The study sought to examine the association between intelligence test scores in men, measured at age 18, and subsequent suicide. During the study 2811 suicides occurred during follow up. The risk of suicide was two to three times higher in those with lowest compared with the highest test scores. The strongest associations were seen with the logic test: for each unit increase in test score the risk of suicide decreased by 12% (95% confidence interval 10% to 14%). Associations were only slightly attenuated when we controlled for parents' socioeconomic position. Greatest risks were seen among poorly performing offspring of well educated parents.
The study concluded that performance in intelligence tests is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men. This may be due to the importance of cognitive ability in either the aetiology of serious mental disorder or an individual's capacity to solve problems while going through an acute life crisis or suffering from mental illness.
BMJ 2005;330:167 (22 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.38310.473565.8F (published 22 December 2004)
Gunnell, D., Magnusson, P K E., Rasmussen, F.
The study sought to examine the association between intelligence test scores in men, measured at age 18, and subsequent suicide. During the study 2811 suicides occurred during follow up. The risk of suicide was two to three times higher in those with lowest compared with the highest test scores. The strongest associations were seen with the logic test: for each unit increase in test score the risk of suicide decreased by 12% (95% confidence interval 10% to 14%). Associations were only slightly attenuated when we controlled for parents' socioeconomic position. Greatest risks were seen among poorly performing offspring of well educated parents.
The study concluded that performance in intelligence tests is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men. This may be due to the importance of cognitive ability in either the aetiology of serious mental disorder or an individual's capacity to solve problems while going through an acute life crisis or suffering from mental illness.
BMJ 2005;330:167 (22 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.38310.473565.8F (published 22 December 2004)
20 January 2005
Memetics and Social Contagion: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
Following a thematic overview of social contagion research, this paper examines the question of whether this established field of social science and the nascent discipline of memetics can be usefully understood as two sides of the same coin. It is suggested that social contagion research, currently lacking a conceptual framework or organising principle, may be characterised as a body of evidence without theory. Conversely, it is suggested that memetics, now over two decades old but yet to be operationalised, may be characterised as a body of theory without evidence. The article concludes by proposing a memetic theory of social contagion, arguing that social contagion research and memetics are indeed two sides of the same social epidemiological coin, and ends with a call for their synthesis into a comprehensive body of theoretically informed research.
Marsden, P. (1998). Memetics and Social Contagion: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission,2.
Following a thematic overview of social contagion research, this paper examines the question of whether this established field of social science and the nascent discipline of memetics can be usefully understood as two sides of the same coin. It is suggested that social contagion research, currently lacking a conceptual framework or organising principle, may be characterised as a body of evidence without theory. Conversely, it is suggested that memetics, now over two decades old but yet to be operationalised, may be characterised as a body of theory without evidence. The article concludes by proposing a memetic theory of social contagion, arguing that social contagion research and memetics are indeed two sides of the same social epidemiological coin, and ends with a call for their synthesis into a comprehensive body of theoretically informed research.
Marsden, P. (1998). Memetics and Social Contagion: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission,2.
THE EVOLUTION OF DEPRESSION: DOES IT HAVE A ROLE?
(All In The Mind:15/01/2005)
Major and minor depression, even post partum depression - could they serve an important evolutionary function? Is depression a biological pathology or an adaptation, critical to our reproductive success and survival as aspecies? Natasha Mitchell is joined by two evolutionary biologists who argue that our capacity to be depressed has evolved over millennia to help us cope with difficult social circumstances. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1261369.htm
(All In The Mind:15/01/2005)
Major and minor depression, even post partum depression - could they serve an important evolutionary function? Is depression a biological pathology or an adaptation, critical to our reproductive success and survival as aspecies? Natasha Mitchell is joined by two evolutionary biologists who argue that our capacity to be depressed has evolved over millennia to help us cope with difficult social circumstances. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1261369.htm
19 January 2005
Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression
Members of ethnic minority groups are less likely than white middle class people to seek professional treatment for depression and other mental health problems. One explanation is that the former conceptualize depressive symptoms as social problems or emotional reactions to situations, while the latter are more apt to view depression as a disease requiring professional treatment. Though considerable evidence supports this hypothesis, it is rarely explored directly through cross-cultural comparisons. The present study compares conceptual models of depressive symptoms in two diverse cultural groups in New York City (USA): 36 South Asian (SA) immigrants and 37 European Americans (EA) were presented with a vignette describing depressive symptoms and participated in a semi-structured interview designed to elicit representational models of the symptoms.
Karasz, A. 2005. Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression. Social Science & Medicine Volume 60, Issue 7 , Pages 1625-1635
Members of ethnic minority groups are less likely than white middle class people to seek professional treatment for depression and other mental health problems. One explanation is that the former conceptualize depressive symptoms as social problems or emotional reactions to situations, while the latter are more apt to view depression as a disease requiring professional treatment. Though considerable evidence supports this hypothesis, it is rarely explored directly through cross-cultural comparisons. The present study compares conceptual models of depressive symptoms in two diverse cultural groups in New York City (USA): 36 South Asian (SA) immigrants and 37 European Americans (EA) were presented with a vignette describing depressive symptoms and participated in a semi-structured interview designed to elicit representational models of the symptoms.
Karasz, A. 2005. Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression. Social Science & Medicine Volume 60, Issue 7 , Pages 1625-1635
17 January 2005
Social and familial risk factors in suicidal behavior.
Maris RW.
The focus of this article is on the presence or absence of external and constraining social facts, as reflected in indicators like divorce rate, marital status, the number of close friends, loss of crucial significant others, or sometimes having no one who cares if the person lives or dies, feelings of shame or intolerable guilt, the belief of sacrificing one's life for a higher cause or another person, and military suicide. This article reviews the history of the sociology of suicide, social isolation, contagion, imitation, suicide clusters, stress, and negative life events.
Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1997 Sep;20(3):519-50.
Maris RW.
The focus of this article is on the presence or absence of external and constraining social facts, as reflected in indicators like divorce rate, marital status, the number of close friends, loss of crucial significant others, or sometimes having no one who cares if the person lives or dies, feelings of shame or intolerable guilt, the belief of sacrificing one's life for a higher cause or another person, and military suicide. This article reviews the history of the sociology of suicide, social isolation, contagion, imitation, suicide clusters, stress, and negative life events.
Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1997 Sep;20(3):519-50.
CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY
Changeability, confidence, common sense and corroboration: comprehensive suicide risk assessment
Mental health clinicians can be guided by a framework in suicide risk assessment and documentation. The assessment of suicide risk can generate a suicide risk rating for which minimum standards of care can be mandated.
Nick O'Connor , Monica Warby, Beverley Raphael and Tony Vassallo. (2004). Changeability, confidence, common sense and corroboration: comprehensive suicide risk assessment. Australasian Psychiatry.
Volume 12 Issue 4 Page 352
Changeability, confidence, common sense and corroboration: comprehensive suicide risk assessment
Mental health clinicians can be guided by a framework in suicide risk assessment and documentation. The assessment of suicide risk can generate a suicide risk rating for which minimum standards of care can be mandated.
Nick O'Connor , Monica Warby, Beverley Raphael and Tony Vassallo. (2004). Changeability, confidence, common sense and corroboration: comprehensive suicide risk assessment. Australasian Psychiatry.
Volume 12 Issue 4 Page 352
12 January 2005
Mental Health Promotion Officer
Directorate: Midwest Murchison region
Org Unit: Population Health
Level: HSU Level 6
Salary: $57,642 - $62,816 per annum
Hours: Full time 76 hours per fortnight
Further Info: Please Contact David Richardson(Manager Primary Health), on:9956 1962
Description: Responsible for planning, coordination, implementation and evaluation of mental health promotion and illness prevention programs
Closing Date: Friday, 28 January 2005
Documentation: Download supporting Documents
Directorate: Midwest Murchison region
Org Unit: Population Health
Level: HSU Level 6
Salary: $57,642 - $62,816 per annum
Hours: Full time 76 hours per fortnight
Further Info: Please Contact David Richardson(Manager Primary Health), on:9956 1962
Description: Responsible for planning, coordination, implementation and evaluation of mental health promotion and illness prevention programs
Closing Date: Friday, 28 January 2005
Documentation: Download supporting Documents
10 January 2005
Coping Personally after the Tsunamis: Fact sheet
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2004/pdf/tsunamis_fs.pdf
What to expect, ways to cope, and help seeking advice.
Issued by NSW Health, January 2005
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2004/pdf/tsunamis_fs.pdf
What to expect, ways to cope, and help seeking advice.
Issued by NSW Health, January 2005