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Mental ill-health and substance use bear significant public health burden on young people. Prevention is key. Trauma-informed approaches to prevention of mental ill-health and substance use demonstrate significant promise, yet it is unclear how well existing approaches work for young people targeting mental ill-health and substance use. This review aimed to assess the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of trauma-informed mental ill-health and/or substance use prevention programs for young people.  

Skin health is widely recognised as being important for overall good health and well-being, yet the burden of skin infections in remote Aboriginal communities remains high. This project aimed to explore if virtual support for skin health could be a strategy to reduce community barriers to skin health engagement. 

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is particularly common among trans young people. NSSI is most commonly used as an emotion regulation strategy, which may explain the high prevalence of the behavior among trans young people, who often experience unique stressors. In the current study we test an application of the Pantheoretical Framework of Dehumanization, in which transphobic experiences, body surveillance, body dissatisfaction, and gender dysphoria are all theorized to predict NSSI.

Young Australians living in rural and remote locations have poorer mental health outcomes and higher rates of self-harm and suicide than their major city counterparts. Significant service gaps and barriers exist in accessing general and youth-specific mental health services. With a lack of access, comes delays in treatment and associated poorer outcomes. This paper describes the characteristics of young people requiring an aeromedical retrieval (AR) for acute inpatient psychiatric care.

Yael Perry BPsych (Hons) MPsych (Clin) PhD Head, Youth Mental Health 08 6319 1298 yael.perry@thekids.org.au Head, Youth Mental Health @yaelperry she/

Pediatric gender clinics and researchers commonly use scales to measure different dimensions of gender (e.g. identity, dysphoria, satisfaction). There has been little investigation into the relevance and consumer acceptability of these scales within contemporary understandings and experiences of gender. 

Children with otitis media (OM) experience long waiting times to access Australia's public hospitals due to limited capacity. The aim of this article is to utilize an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) telehealth service (the Ear Portal) to examine whether delayed access to specialist care is associated with poorer behavioral outcomes for children with OM.

Many trans young people seek mental health support and gender-affirming medical interventions including puberty suppression, gender-affirming hormones and/or surgeries. Trans young people and their parents face multiple barriers in accessing gender-affirming care and mental health support, however little is known about the parent perspective on accessing services for their trans child.

Aboriginal young people are experts in their own experience and are best placed to identify the solutions to their mental health and wellbeing needs. Given that Aboriginal young people experience high rates of mental health concerns and are less likely than non-Indigenous young people to access mental health services, co-design and evaluation of appropriate mental health care is a priority.

Young people are more likely to be affected by suicide contagion, and there are concerns about the role social media plays in the development and maintenance of suicide clusters or in facilitating imitative suicidal behavior. However, social media also presents an opportunity to provide real-time and age-appropriate suicide prevention information, which could be an important component of suicide postvention activities.