Archive for 'Sector News'

Mental health cover in spotlight as claims soar

Mental health cover in spotlight as claims soar

Insurers have been urged to curtail large lump-sum payments for mental health claimants and to monitor employers’ track records in detailing workers’ mental health issues to overcome “systemic” instability, in proposals put forward by the Actuaries [...]

Drug addicted mums given help to look after newborns as government rolls out $9m funding

Drug addicted mums given help to look after newborns as government rolls out $9m funding

MOTHERS giving birth last year in hospitals across western Sydney were taking drugs, including heroin and ice, in the lead-up to having their baby. Of the 1523 mothers who took drugs, a third drank ­alcohol or [...]

Universities Need An Education In Youth Mental Health

Universities Need An Education In Youth Mental Health

Australian universities demonstrated commendable leadership over the course of 2016 in tackling the issue of sexual assault and sexual harassment. In collaboration with the Australian Human Rights commission, the leaders of all 39 Australian universities launched [...]

Canberra’s primary health body calls for audit of demand for suicide prevention services in the ACT

Canberra’s primary health body calls for audit of demand for suicide prevention services in the ACT

The body responsible for primary health care services in Canberra has called for an audit of the demand for suicide prevention services in the ACT, in the absence of reliable data on the need for such programs. [...]

Poor mental health costs Aust $60b a year

Poor mental health costs Aust $60b a year

Early intervention is key to reducing the costly impact of poor mental health in Australia, says a visiting UK economist. Mental illness has been put on the economic agenda, as its cost to the nation soars [...]

FIFO workers urged to get help with mental health, relationship pressures

FIFO workers urged to get help with mental health, relationship pressures

Long work hours in a harsh, remote climate are pushing people and relationships to breaking point, according to a Darwin-based couples counsellor and sex therapist. While fly-in fly-out workers on projects around the country face similar [...]

These Eating Disorder Survivors Want “Pro-Ana” Sites Outlawed In Australia

These Eating Disorder Survivors Want “Pro-Ana” Sites Outlawed In Australia

“Pro-ana” websites are spaces for those with eating disorders to consult fellow sufferers for encouragement and punishment via skeletal selfies, purging tips, weight loss competitions, and motivational starving advice. Victorian sales and marketing professional and recovering [...]

Brisbane to get new residential youth mental health facility after Barrett Centre closure

Brisbane to get new residential youth mental health facility after Barrett Centre closure

A new residential adolescent mental health facility will be built at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane to replace the Barrett Centre which was controversially shut down in 2014. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the new bed-based [...]

Indigenous suicide rate should be addressed with action, not ‘talkfests’, Fiona Stanley says

Indigenous suicide rate should be addressed with action, not ‘talkfests’, Fiona Stanley says

Former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley says action, not more inquiries or summits, is what’s needed to address the escalating Indigenous suicide rate. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has asked Health Minister Sussan Ley to host [...]

Massive duplication of mental health services in Indigenous communities, WA committee hears

Massive duplication of mental health services in Indigenous communities, WA committee hears

Duplication of mental health services in a number of Aboriginal communities is rendering many of them ineffective, according to organisations giving evidence to a Legislative Assembly committee in Perth. The Education and Health Standing Committee is [...]