MENTAL HEALTH
If successful, this research "could transform psychiatry, which lacks an objective test for this illness" (The Age, 18 August 2008, http://tinyurl.com/3jxv9n) and could be used as a screening test by people who do not have clinical knowledge, but are in service settings, helping alert them to the need for extra care and attention. Nick Allen believes the tool might help overcome the challenge of identifying people early when intervention can often be most effective by helping identify the people who need help early, so that resources can be directed to them more quickly. Hopefully this will help prevent depression before it becomes ingrained. "Very often people take a long time to recognise that they're depressed and to come for help with services. A technology like this may in the future help us to identify those people more quickly and get them the help they need." (ABC Radio National, PM, Monday, 18 August 2008, 18:38:00, http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2339395.htm)
The NSW Association for Adolescent Health Inc. (NAAH) has moved to the Brain and Mind Research Institute Building and their new address is: Room 2, Level 3, Building F, 94 Mallett Street, Camperdown NSW 2050, PO Box M178, Missenden Road, NSW 2050, ph: (02) 9351 0956; fax: (02) 9351 0955; email: admin[at]naah.org.au; web: http://www.naah.org.au)
Note: Also see the Australian Government Youth portal at: http://www.youth.gov.au and the Australian Youth Forum at: http://www.youth.gov.au/ayf
Supported by VicHealth, the Westpac Foundation and ORYGEN Youth Health Research Centre, the report reveals that for marginalised youth, "taking action" has connotations other than social and political participation -- not knowing how to take action, the attitudes of others and their own personal circumstances and characteristics are barriers for marginalised youth, most of whom face more pressing concerns, such as safety, personal security, housing and health. "Taking action" for these young people might simply mean finding safe shelter.
The research involved focus groups with young people and in-depth interviews with service providers across Victoria, and explored how young people from a diverse range of backgrounds feel about participating in political and social action.
Jane Burns, Inspire's Director of Research and Policy and a key author of the report, says this research shows that "young people want and need practical frameworks for taking action. Programs need to be focused on affecting change regarding personally relevant issues defined as important by young people themselves. It reinforces for us the importance of Inspire's mission which is to create opportunities for young to change their world." The Inspire Foundation (http://www.inspire.org.au) is a national organisation that uses technology to create opportunities for young people to change their world. Copies of the report are available at http://www.inspire.org.au/news/research-redefines-taking-action-for-marginalised-young-people.html For further information, contact Michelle Blanchard, Research Officer, Inspire Foundation, ph: (03) 9825 5170. (Source: AYIN e-list, posting by Michelle Blanchard, 10 October 2008, Michelle.Blanchard[at]inspire.org.au.)
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/02/digital
Opening the conference, Senator Kim Carr citing the Cutler Report, singled out the report's recommendations to make public information, including the fruits of publicly funded research, more accessible.
Among its recommendations, the Cutler report:
* urges all Australian governments to adopt open publishing standards and creative commons licences.
* says we should ensure that "the scientific knowledge produced in Australia is placed in machine-searchable repositories".
* argues that research funded by Australian governments should be made freely available over the internet as part of the global public commons, as far as is practical.
Senator Carr said the Australian Government is considering these recommendations and will respond to them in an Innovation Policy White Paper. If adopted, the Cutler report's recommendations "will require a rethink of the push we've witnessed in recent years to have researchers commercialise their own discoveries. The jury is now in on this policy, and I think it can safely be declared a failure ... The Productivity Commission, the OECD, and, most recently, Professor Mary O'Kane's Review of the Cooperative Research Centres Program have all questioned the value of asking researchers and research institutions to do their own commercialisation". Senator Carr concluded by saying, "[t]o help maintain the momentum, Australia may want to consider making its own competitive research grants conditional on recipients sharing their research results through open access repositories, including the internet". (Source: Speech, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, 24 September 2008, Open Access and Research Conference, video address, Brisbane, at:
http://minister.innovation.gov.au/Carr/Pages/OpenAccessandResearchConference.aspx Also see the Cutler review documents at http://www.innovation.gov.au/innovationreview/Documents/NIS_summary_web3.pdf (PDF document, 1MB)
Those wise words are from Francesca Beddie's keynote address cited above in the 'EDUCATION section of this newsletter, and are taken from her paper, Making research matter, delivered to the Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation in Bali in July 2008, available at: http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2046.html
This issue of Reform also contains items from Luke Bo'sher of the newly founded Australian youth peak body, AYAC, on the participation of young people in the democratic process, and a personal account of the 2020 Youth Summit by Hugh Evans. The journal also has contributions from:
* Tom Calma,(Human Rights Commission), on the current rights and life chances of Indigenous children;
* Tim Goodwin and Adele Cox (National Indigenous Youth Movement) on Indigenous children and youth and the attempts by the National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia to engage with young Indigenous people;
* Chief Justice Diana Bryant (Family Court of Australia) on the changes made to the Family Court and the family law system over the past decade, and the positive outcomes for children and young people in family dispute resolution and legal proceedings;
* Prof. Rob White (University of Tasmania) on the failures and achievements of juvenile justice over the past 10 years, and his vision for what the system could be;
* Jenny Bargen (NSW Department of Juvenile Justice) on the specific recommendations of the Seen and heard report ;
* Judy Cashmore (University of Sydney) on child protection and children in out-of-home care;
* Justice Susan Kenny (Federal Court of Australia and ALRC part-time Commissioner) on the changing legal framework for inter-country adoption;
* Prof. Patrick Parkinson (University of Sydney) on providing a regulatory framework for family life in Australia and an adequate means for dispute resolution;
* Gillian Calvert (NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People) on the work of the Children's Commissioners in New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and Northern Territory, positions established since the release of Seen and heard;
* Margaret Otlowski (University of Tasmania) on the legal, social and ethical issues associated with genetic testing of minors;
* Barbara Biggins and Elizabeth Handsley (Young Media Australia) on the sexualisation of children in the media and the disturbing link to mental health problems; and
* Zana Bytheway and Vera Smiljanic (JobWatch Inc Victoria) on the problem of bullying and violence against young people in the workforce.
In addition, Houlton Faleomanu Fassau, Kathleen Koharta and Kate Halliday review children and the law in the Solomon Islands, and Joel Fetter gives an overview of the problems facing young people in the workforce. For information on the journal, Reform including its subscription rates and contact details, see: http://www.alrc.gov.au/reform/subscribe.htm
The voice: a key to detecting teen depression
Margaret Lech, a senior engineering lecturer at RMIT, is putting her expertise in speech analysis to work to help identify and help depressed youth, by developing a computer program that can diagnose depressed teenagers simply by analysing their voice. An expert in speech recognition, she is working with the national depression initiative, beyondblue, and Assoc. Prof. Nick Allen of the University of Melbourne's ORYGEN Research Centre on a project that aims to help identify adolescents who need help for depression. The aim is to study the human voice to see how it might give clues to depression, as distinct from 'normal sadness'. "One of the easiest things to notice when (a teenager's) mood changes is that their voice changes ... we often notice this when people we know well ring us on the phone ... we can often detect that there's something wrong in their voice very quickly", Assoc. Prof. Nick Allen reported in an interview about the project with Samantha Donovan on ABC Radio National in August.If successful, this research "could transform psychiatry, which lacks an objective test for this illness" (The Age, 18 August 2008, http://tinyurl.com/3jxv9n) and could be used as a screening test by people who do not have clinical knowledge, but are in service settings, helping alert them to the need for extra care and attention. Nick Allen believes the tool might help overcome the challenge of identifying people early when intervention can often be most effective by helping identify the people who need help early, so that resources can be directed to them more quickly. Hopefully this will help prevent depression before it becomes ingrained. "Very often people take a long time to recognise that they're depressed and to come for help with services. A technology like this may in the future help us to identify those people more quickly and get them the help they need." (ABC Radio National, PM, Monday, 18 August 2008, 18:38:00, http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2339395.htm)
Future directions in youth mental health
A youth health forum on future directions in youth mental health is to be held on 29 October 2008 at the Lorrimer Dods Theatre, Children's Hospital at Westmead. The chairperson and facilitator for the day is David McGrath, Director of NSW Health's Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office. For full details, contact Evelyn Camilleri or Ken Yap, NSW Centre for the Advancement of Adolescent Health, ph: (02) 9845 3338/ 0631; fax: (02) 9845 0663; email: evelync[at]chw.edu.au; wuiy[at]chw.edu.auMOVEMENTS, CHANGES, MILESTONES
The Welfare Rights Centre has farewelled its long-serving director, Michael Raper, who is stepping down after 18 years of service to take up a new role with the Austalian Red Cross. Into his shoes at the Welfare Rights Centre steps Maree O'Halloran, former President of the NSW Teachers' Federation. (Source: Welfare Rights Centre newsletter, rights review, September, p.2, 15.)The NSW Association for Adolescent Health Inc. (NAAH) has moved to the Brain and Mind Research Institute Building and their new address is: Room 2, Level 3, Building F, 94 Mallett Street, Camperdown NSW 2050, PO Box M178, Missenden Road, NSW 2050, ph: (02) 9351 0956; fax: (02) 9351 0955; email: admin[at]naah.org.au; web: http://www.naah.org.au)
NATIONAL YOUTH WEEK 2009
"Make a move"
National Youth Week (NYW) is the largest single celebration of young people on the Australian calendar and has run annually since 2000 as a joint initiative of Australian, state, territory and local governments. Each year a new slogan and design is developed to support the theme and reflect the upcoming year's events and activities. The overall theme of NYW 2009 is "Celebrate and recognise the value of all young Australians to their communities" and the slogan for NYW 2009 is "Make a move". The Australian Government is a joint partner with state and territory governments for National Youth Week. The Australian Government Youth website will have links to the NYW website http://www.youthweek.com, which will also have links to state/territory youth week websites. The NYW hotline number is: 1300 363 079.Note: Also see the Australian Government Youth portal at: http://www.youth.gov.au and the Australian Youth Forum at: http://www.youth.gov.au/ayf
PARENTING
Child protection, domestic violence and parental substance misuse: Family experiences and effective practice
This book, by Hedy Cleaver, Don Nicholson, Sukey Tarr and Deborah Cleaver, was published in 2007 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It explores the facts about the relationship between substance misuse and domestic violence and its effect on children, whose vulnerability to the negative effects of domestic violence, parental alcohol or parental drug misuse is often reflected in their health and development. The capacity for adequate parenting in these circumstances, and the role of child protection is discussed. The authors explore the implications for policy and practice in both child and adult services. More at: http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book.php/isbn/9781843105824PARTICIPATION
Bridging the Digital Divide: Young people's perspectives on taking action
This research report from the Inspire Foundation was released on 10 October 2008. It finds that marginalised youth really do care about political and social issues, but that their day-to-day experiences often make it difficult for them to take action to create change in their communities.Supported by VicHealth, the Westpac Foundation and ORYGEN Youth Health Research Centre, the report reveals that for marginalised youth, "taking action" has connotations other than social and political participation -- not knowing how to take action, the attitudes of others and their own personal circumstances and characteristics are barriers for marginalised youth, most of whom face more pressing concerns, such as safety, personal security, housing and health. "Taking action" for these young people might simply mean finding safe shelter.
The research involved focus groups with young people and in-depth interviews with service providers across Victoria, and explored how young people from a diverse range of backgrounds feel about participating in political and social action.
Jane Burns, Inspire's Director of Research and Policy and a key author of the report, says this research shows that "young people want and need practical frameworks for taking action. Programs need to be focused on affecting change regarding personally relevant issues defined as important by young people themselves. It reinforces for us the importance of Inspire's mission which is to create opportunities for young to change their world." The Inspire Foundation (http://www.inspire.org.au) is a national organisation that uses technology to create opportunities for young people to change their world. Copies of the report are available at http://www.inspire.org.au/news/research-redefines-taking-action-for-marginalised-young-people.html For further information, contact Michelle Blanchard, Research Officer, Inspire Foundation, ph: (03) 9825 5170. (Source: AYIN e-list, posting by Michelle Blanchard, 10 October 2008, Michelle.Blanchard[at]inspire.org.au.)
Note:
Also see the article, 'Understanding students who were 'born digital', a review of a book by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser that aims to bridge the generation gap and increase the understanding of the different habits, learning styles and ideas about privacy attributed to so-called "digital natives." Their book, Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives, was published by Basic Books in 2008. See:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/10/02/digital
Rewriting the rules for youth participation: Inclusion and diversity in government and community decision making: Report to the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme (NYARS).
The National Youth Affairs Research Scheme (NYARS) commissioned this research report to give government and community organisations a framework for approaches to youth participation that will facilitate the involvement of young people from diverse backgrounds. The research is the first of its kind to be conducted in Australia and examined the existing opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds to participate in decision making, their perceptions and expectations of participation, and their past experience of participation. The report describes the experiences of young people from Indigenous, refugee and low socioeconomic backgrounds, and young people who have a disability and those who have experienced care and protection services, guardianship or foster care. The report examined the strengths and limitations of targeted, as opposed to universal, approaches to youth participation, and the motivations, barriers and benefits of participation. Finally, it also examines the strategies for involving young people from diverse backgrounds. Prepared by the Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA) in conjunction with the Inspire Foundation, the report's authors are Johanna Bell, Ariadne Vromen and Phillippa Collin. The full report can be downloaded from: http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/youth/programmes_funding/nyars/Rewriting_the_Rules_for_Youth_Participation.htm, viewed 17 October 2008. Also see: http://www.inspire.org.au and http://www.circaresearch.com.au/Connect 173
Just published: Issue 173 of Connect: The journal supporting student participation. This issue contains stories from two primary schools about student participation and engagement, news from state-wide student conferences in NSW and Victoria and from the national MindMatters Youth Empowerment Congress, as well as resources, 'Getting ideas and reporting back' and the 'dreaming' activity from the Connect publication, Student Action Team approaches, plus lots more. Copies of Connect are available by subscription from Roger Holdsworth. Check the website at: http://www.geocities.com/rogermhold/Connect and if you ask nicely (r.holdsworth[at]unimelb.edu.au), Roger might even send you a sample copy! (In December, Connect celebrates 29 years of publication with the next issue.)RESEARCH
Research implications of the Cutler report, Venturous Australia: Building strength in innovation
The outcome of the Review of the National Innovation System was recently published in the report, Venturous Australia: Building strength in innovation. The review panel was lead by Dr Terry Cutler. The 'Cutler report' overview and recommendations make interesting reading for researchers, and some of its recommendations were highlighted by Australia's Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research in a video address when he opened an international conference on open access and research in Brisbane in September 2008. The conference was hosted by the Queensland University of Technology-based Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project, which is led by Prof. Brian Fitzgerald and funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. (The OAK Law Project aims to ensure that people can legally and efficiently share knowledge in an open access manner across domains and across the world.)Opening the conference, Senator Kim Carr citing the Cutler Report, singled out the report's recommendations to make public information, including the fruits of publicly funded research, more accessible.
Among its recommendations, the Cutler report:
* urges all Australian governments to adopt open publishing standards and creative commons licences.
* says we should ensure that "the scientific knowledge produced in Australia is placed in machine-searchable repositories".
* argues that research funded by Australian governments should be made freely available over the internet as part of the global public commons, as far as is practical.
Senator Carr said the Australian Government is considering these recommendations and will respond to them in an Innovation Policy White Paper. If adopted, the Cutler report's recommendations "will require a rethink of the push we've witnessed in recent years to have researchers commercialise their own discoveries. The jury is now in on this policy, and I think it can safely be declared a failure ... The Productivity Commission, the OECD, and, most recently, Professor Mary O'Kane's Review of the Cooperative Research Centres Program have all questioned the value of asking researchers and research institutions to do their own commercialisation". Senator Carr concluded by saying, "[t]o help maintain the momentum, Australia may want to consider making its own competitive research grants conditional on recipients sharing their research results through open access repositories, including the internet". (Source: Speech, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, 24 September 2008, Open Access and Research Conference, video address, Brisbane, at:
http://minister.innovation.gov.au/Carr/Pages/OpenAccessandResearchConference.aspx Also see the Cutler review documents at http://www.innovation.gov.au/innovationreview/Documents/NIS_summary_web3.pdf (PDF document, 1MB)
The Oaklist
The Oak Law Project's Oaklist is an initiative that indicates scholarly publishers' approaches towards open access, and what an author or open access repository can or cannot do in relation to the online archiving of material published by a specific publisher. The Oaklist is at: http://www.oaklist.qut.edu.au/Food for thought for researchers and knowledge-workers
"We researchers can take heart that, despite the ready access to so much information, we will not be rendered obsolete. Rather, we have more work than ever to do, including taking on the task of becoming knowledge-brokers, the people who sift through the vast, confusing mass of information, and help others -- politicians and citizens alike -- make sense of it. This role has been acknowledged by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Its 2007 report, Evidence in education: Linking research and policy, notes that increased access to information via the internet comes at the cost of less quality control and goes on to argue that 'the role of research for evidence-informed policy is becoming newly important' (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation 2007, p.18). Consequently, research organisations, able to analyse the data and sift out the detritus from the information mass, will assume greater responsibility as knowledge-brokers."Those wise words are from Francesca Beddie's keynote address cited above in the 'EDUCATION section of this newsletter, and are taken from her paper, Making research matter, delivered to the Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation in Bali in July 2008, available at: http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2046.html
RIGHTS
Seen and heard revisited
Released over a decade ago, the report, Seen and heard: Priority for children in the legal process (Australian Law Reform Commission report n.84, 1997) was the culmination of a major two-year inquiry on how children and young people are treated by Australia's legal system and Australia's international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ten years later, the current issue of the ALRC's journal, Reform (n.92, Winter 2008) has taken a look at how Australia's treatment of children and young people in the legal process measures up against the recommendations of the Seen and heard report. In an eponymous article, 'Seen and heard revisited' an overview of the progress made by government since the publication of the Seen and heard report is presented by James McDougall, Tiffany Overall (National Children's and Youth Law Centre) and Peter Henley (Mallesons Stephen Jacques, Melbourne).This issue of Reform also contains items from Luke Bo'sher of the newly founded Australian youth peak body, AYAC, on the participation of young people in the democratic process, and a personal account of the 2020 Youth Summit by Hugh Evans. The journal also has contributions from:
* Tom Calma,(Human Rights Commission), on the current rights and life chances of Indigenous children;
* Tim Goodwin and Adele Cox (National Indigenous Youth Movement) on Indigenous children and youth and the attempts by the National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia to engage with young Indigenous people;
* Chief Justice Diana Bryant (Family Court of Australia) on the changes made to the Family Court and the family law system over the past decade, and the positive outcomes for children and young people in family dispute resolution and legal proceedings;
* Prof. Rob White (University of Tasmania) on the failures and achievements of juvenile justice over the past 10 years, and his vision for what the system could be;
* Jenny Bargen (NSW Department of Juvenile Justice) on the specific recommendations of the Seen and heard report ;
* Judy Cashmore (University of Sydney) on child protection and children in out-of-home care;
* Justice Susan Kenny (Federal Court of Australia and ALRC part-time Commissioner) on the changing legal framework for inter-country adoption;
* Prof. Patrick Parkinson (University of Sydney) on providing a regulatory framework for family life in Australia and an adequate means for dispute resolution;
* Gillian Calvert (NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People) on the work of the Children's Commissioners in New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and Northern Territory, positions established since the release of Seen and heard;
* Margaret Otlowski (University of Tasmania) on the legal, social and ethical issues associated with genetic testing of minors;
* Barbara Biggins and Elizabeth Handsley (Young Media Australia) on the sexualisation of children in the media and the disturbing link to mental health problems; and
* Zana Bytheway and Vera Smiljanic (JobWatch Inc Victoria) on the problem of bullying and violence against young people in the workforce.
In addition, Houlton Faleomanu Fassau, Kathleen Koharta and Kate Halliday review children and the law in the Solomon Islands, and Joel Fetter gives an overview of the problems facing young people in the workforce. For information on the journal, Reform including its subscription rates and contact details, see: http://www.alrc.gov.au/reform/subscribe.htm