Kids Help Line Newsletter.
November Edition

Over the past decade there has been an increasing level of concern about the welfare of boys and young men in Australia. Higher rates of completed suicide, homelessness, incarceration, and poorer educational and health outcomes for young males compared with females is disturbingly juxtaposed to lower rates of help seeking by males. In an attempt to discover why males are more reluctant to seek help and what may prevent them from expressing their needs readily, Kids Help Line surveyed 422 young males. A key aspect of the survey focused on how ofen boys talk about their feelings and concerns.

Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health (AeJAMH)

Volume 3, Issue 2, August 2004
Contents
Download all the editorials/abstracts for this issue (~80kb), or the full issue (~309Kb).

Editorial - On accountability
Professor Graham Martin

Guest Editorial - Suicide prevention: part of the way there?
Robert Kosky, Consulting Editor

Guest Editorial - Growing up with a parent with a mental illness - a personal perspective
Paola Mason

Consulting with young people about service guidelines relating to parental mental illness
Elizabeth Fudge and Paola Mason

When is it serious enough? The protection of children of parents with a mental health problem, tough decisions and avoiding a 'martyred' child
Carolyn Cousins

Kick'n'On: Helping young males kick back into life
Chris Lloyd, Phillip Lee Williams and Dan Sullivan

Factors predicting program fidelity and delivery of an early intervention program for first episode psychosis in rural Australia
Richard O'Kearney, Graham Garland, Mark Welch, Len Kanowski and Sylvia Fitzgerald

Key National Indicators of Children's Health, Development and Wellbeing
AIHW Bulletin No. 20.

Monitoring the progress of Australia's children is central to the National Agenda for Early Childhood (Department of Family and Community Services, 2004). The AIHW has been monitoring the health, development and wellbeing of Australia's children since 1996 with funding from the Department of Health and Ageing. To date the Institute has produced four comprehensive national reports in this area-Australia's Children (published in 1998 and 2002) and Australia's Young People (published in 1999 and 2003). In keeping in line with a new emphasis on a whole of government cross-sectoral approach to childhood policy, the AIHW has broadened its reporting framework in this area to encompass a wider set on influences on childhood development. This work has been guided by an Advisory Committee comprising key experts and jurisdictional representatives, the Australian Government Taskforce on Child Development, and the Australian Council for Children and Parenting. This bulletin provides an overview of the key indicators to be published in A Picture of Australia's Children 2005, as
part of a national program of indicator development, data collection and regular reporting.

Public Health Association of New Zealand Conference 2005
Making the Links for Public Health

Invitation to submit an abstract to Public Health Association of New Zealand
Conference.

Close date for abstracts January 28th 2005. Details for submitting abstract
online are on http://www.pha.org.nz/ or contact pha@actrix.co.nz or telephone (04)
472-3060

The theme, Making the Links for Public Health, will flow through the five
streams of the Conference:
1. Reducing inequalities in health
2. Sustainable development
3. Public health law and public policy
4. Place-based public health initiatives
5. Research and evaluation methods

Mental Health Workshop

The Office of Mental Health and Statewide Public Mental Health Services are seeking the views of mental health consumers and carers on a structure for participation in mental health services. A consumer and carer workshop has been organised for Friday 12th November, 10am-12.30pm, at the City West Function Centre

This workshop will provide a chance to express your views on how consumer and carer participation in mental health services should be supported. It is hoped that the workshop will cover a wide range of issues, including:
- What should formal consumer/carer participation services look like?
- What do you want out of a participation service?
- Should consumer and carer participation services be run by the same organisation?
- Who should oversee this organisation/s?
- How will we know when we've got it right?
- What are the range of consumer/carer participation roles and activities?

Following this workshop a participation reference group will be established with a work plan and objectives. The Office of Mental Health will seek consumer and carer representation on this reference group.
Light refreshments will be served during the workshop. A light lunch will also be provided after the workshop.
RSVP: Please contact Kylie at the Office of Mental Health on 08 9222 4405 to confirm your attendance.
The Office of Mental Health has a small budget for rural and remote travel expenses; please contact Kylie for further information.

Information extracted from Carers WA newslink 2004

COMING UP ON INSIGHT...TEENAGE DEPRESSION
TUESDAY 9 NOVEMBER,7.30pm.
Last year over 250,000 antidepressant prescriptions were issued to teenagers, and children as young as five. Yet no antidepressant has ever been approved by Australia’s drug regulatory body for use with adolescents. INSIGHT examines the growth in what is termed teenage depression and its treatment. Are all anti depressant drugs safe for adolescents ? INSIGHT has an exclusive interview with Susan Crane whose daughter Vivian committed suicide after being prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft. Neither mother or daughter were warned of the dangers associated with the use of the antidepressants. Susan Crane feels that the tragedy may not have happened if they had been made aware of the risks. Why do GPs continue to prescribe antidepressants to adolescents when there are well known risks? Some doctors argue that they have little choice as there are insufficient mental health resources to service the needs of young people. And is it possible that we are too quick to diagnose the ‘normal anxiety and drama’ of adolescence as clinical depression?

A panel including British child psychiatrist David Healey, Dr Jon Juriedini, Dr Choon Yiew Soong, and Professor Ian Hickie and many adolescents who’ve been diagnosed as ‘depressive’ will discuss this issue next
Tuesday on Insight.

* PLEASE NOTE, INSIGHT IS REPEATED ON FRIDAYS AT 1PM

Selling smaller packs of painkillers slashes suicide risk
UK legislation on analgesic packs: before and after study of long term effect on poisonings

Selling paracetamol and other painkillers in smaller pack sizes has slashed rates of suicide and damage to the liver from paracetamol poisoning, concludes a study on bmj.com this week. Suicides from overdoses of paracetamol or aspirin dropped nearly a quarter in the three years following new legislation in 1998, which cut pack sizes and limited how many tablets a retailer was allowed to sell. The researchers also found that numbers of tablets taken in non-fatal overdoses of aspirin and paracetamol fell significantly after the legislation. As a result admissions to liver units for paracetamol poisoning, and numbers of related liver transplants also dropped heavily - down by nearly a third (30%) in the four years after the laws came into force. Researchers analysed rates of suicides and non-fatal overdoses from paracetamol, salicylates (aspirin) and ibuprofen across the UK between 1993and 2003. While overdosing from paracetamol and salicylates - both covered by the new laws - decreased, patterns of overdosing from ibuprofen, which was not targeted in the legislation, remained roughly the same. Although smaller pack sizes do not prevent someone from buying multiple packs from various retailers, many of those who overdose do so impulsively - using tablets to hand in the home, say the authors. Smaller pack sizes will prevent deaths, say the authors. Their research provides a persuasive argument to reduce pack sizes still further, they conclude.

For further information contact Sue Simkin, senior researcher, Centre for Suicide Research, University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry,Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK Email: sue.simkin@psych.ox.ac.uk