DOING DRUGS WITH
PAUL DILLON

An article in a recent edition of the Daily Telegraph highlights the current "nationwide shortage of child psychologists" , which was an issue pre-COVID but one that's become far more significant since the pandemic began. It discusses "massive waiting lists" and, provides results from the Australian Association of Psychologists' (AAPi) latest national survey of 600 private psychologists that found "nearly half of practices were unable to accept new clients - an increase of 10 per cent on 2020." Anxiety and depression were on the rise prior to the pandemic but COVID and all that goes with it, including lockdowns and restrictions, have certainly not made things easier. In 2012, 18.6% of young Australians aged 15-19 years reported 'psychological distress' (a predictor of mental health problems, including anxiety, depression and suicidal behaviour). In 2020, that had risen to over one quarter (26.6%), with young women being at greater risk (34

This is an updated version of a blog entry that I wrote some time ago and, in response to requests from parents, I've reposted it at the beginning of the school year a number of times. This version has been shortened down and is hopefully more 'user-friendly', ending with five simple things that parents can do to help support their child through the first few months of high school. I'm sure some people have fond memories of their first day of high school - I'm not one of them! The move from a state primary school to a private high school was tough. I knew absolutely no-one and felt completely alone.  Thankfully, it's now extremely rare for children to be thrown into high school and left to fend for themselves, with most schools developing and implementing transition programs to ensure that no-one 'slips through the cracks' during this potentially difficult time. Even so, it's vital that parents realise the school can't do this alone and that they

This is a slightly updated version of a blog entry that I wrote a couple of years ago. I've put it together due to a number of parents contacting me in the past few weeks requesting a copy of the previous article to give to their teens who had recently got their P-plates.  Even though the Christmas/New Year period has just passed, it's still school holidays and we're going to continue to see police out in force on the roads in an effort to prevent senseless tragedies from occurring. Random breath testing (RBT) units will be stationed on roads across the country and if you have a young driver at home, it's highly likely that they will be pulled over and breathalysed in the weeks ahead. For as much as it called 'random', in reality, very few P-platers mange to drive past an RBT unit and not get ushered into being tested. Victoria was the first state in the country to introduce RBT way back in 1976. It was then introduced across Australia in different jurisdictions