Newborns are wonderful things, but their arrival can cause enormous upheaval for their parents. Dads, as well as Mums, are at risk of psychological distress in the neonatal period. In this webinar, Dr Jan Orman is joined by Associate Professor Richard Fletcher from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Newcastle. Richard leads the Fathers and Families Research Program and is the founder of SMS4dads, a service designed to provide support for dads until their baby is one year old.

eMHPrac (e mental health in practice) Project Director Heidi Sturk recently spoke at the 12th Annual Scientific Meeting International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) in Limerick, Ireland and at the Digital Mental Health Congress in Ottawa, Canada. She returned with a lot of exciting news about what's going on internationally in the digital mental health space.

In this webinar, Dr. Jan Orman will speak with Heidi Sturk about the conference learnings and some of the developments she found most exciting. It seems there is a lot happening and talking to Heidi will help us all keep up!

Screen-based devices play a central role in adolescents’ daily lives, serving purposes such as education, entertainment, social interactions, and creativity. While public concern about the impact of screen use on adolescent mental health has grown, evidence of a direct link remains unclear. The association between screen use and mental health is complex, influenced by many factors. This webinar will report on new data about this association based on an analysis of the data provided by Australian adolescents currently enrolled in the Black Dog Institute’s Future Proofing Study. These findings will be framed within the broader context of screen use research and offer recommendations for both societal and individual changes to help adolescents benefit from online experiences while reducing potential harms.

Dr. Lyndsay Brown has worked for five years as a Research Officer on the Future Proofing Study, now the largest and most comprehensive longitudinal study of adolescent mental health in Australia. Between 2019 and 2021, thousands of Year 8 students across Australia were recruited for this six-year study and each year they complete confidential questionnaires about their mental health, identity, experiences, and well-being. The team analyses this data to identify the risk and protective factors associated with adolescent mental health and the early interventions that could help adolescents thrive. Lyndsay’s work spans school engagement, data collection, research, public presentations, and community outreach.

Hosted by Dr Kathy O'Grady.

Many of us know something about the post-colonization history of Australia and most have some understanding of the transgenerational impact that history has had on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. Nonetheless, it is often difficult to know what we need to do and how we need to be as clinicians to respect indigenous culture and behave as allies to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and clients. Many of us have done "cultural awareness" training and even adjusted our workplaces to make indigenous people feel comfortable but what other changes do we need to make to be good allies?

In this webinar, Dr. Jan Orman, Mim Weber (WellMob) and Angela Sheridan (WellMob) will discuss how clinicians can be good allies to their First Nations patients.

Check out the slides here.

With the plethora of digital CBT apps and programs available, how do you select one that’s effective, safe, and engaging for teens? In this webinar Dr. Mirjana Subotic-Kerry, Senior Research Program Manager at Black Dog Institute delves into her research on digital cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and its impact on teen mental health.

Mirjana shares the latest research findings and insights on navigating interventions to ensure they’re evidence-based and prioritise the safety of teens’ data and privacy, among other considerations. She introduces the new app ClearlyMe.

You can find the slides here.

Sleep is vital to mental health, especially for adolescents who are in a critical stage of development and forming lifelong habits. However, 40% of young people face significant sleep problems which can put them at risk of developing anxiety or depression. There is extensive evidence for the benefits of Cognitive Behaviour for Insomnia (CBT-I), but an app delivering this gold standard treatment to adolescents was missing.

In this webinar, Dr Sophie Li (Postdoctoral Research Fellow and clinical psychologist at Black Dog Institute) introduces Sleep Ninja®; a free, evidence-based smartphone app shown to be effective in helping young people with sleep problems.

Hosted by Dr Sarah Barker

Eating disorders have low rates of early detection and intervention, but both are needed for the best outcomes. Research shows that a multi-disciplinary team including the patient's GP is needed to facilitate recovery.

In this webinar, Dr Karen Speilman (Primary Care GP Advisor at InsideOut Institute) and Peta Marks (National Programs Manager at InsideOut Institute) will introduce the new InsideOut GP Hub & Tools which will complement and support GPs in their role which includes early identification, intervention and management.

Hosted by Dr Kathy O’Grady

We look at neuroaffirming strategies that ADHD adults can use to live well with ADHD. Dr Sarah Barker is a clinical psychologist who is interested in approaches to living well with ADHD to increase wellbeing. This webinar is hosted by Dr Jan Orman MBBS MPsychMed. Jan is a Sydney GP with a special interest in mental health and psychological medicine.