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Research

Social media may play a role in the "contagion" mechanism thought to underpin suicide clusters. Our pilot case-control study presented a novel methodological approach to examining whether Facebook activity following cluster and non-cluster suicides differed.

Research

The within study replication consistently found that coping style mediates subclinical psychotic experiences and psychosocial functioning

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Trans and gender diverse young people experience mental health difficulties self-harm and suicidality at markedly higher rates than the general population, yet they often feel isolated from mental health services. There is little qualitative research on the experiences of trans and gender diverse young people accessing mental health support in Australia.

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The prevention of suicide and suicide-related behaviour are key policy priorities in Australia and internationally. The World Health Organization has recommended that member states develop self-harm surveillance systems as part of their suicide prevention efforts. This is also a priority under Australia's Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a state-based self-harm monitoring system in Victoria, Australia. In this system, data on all self-harm presentations are collected from eight hospital emergency departments in Victoria. A natural language processing classifier that uses machine learning to identify episodes of self-harm is currently being developed.

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The Western Australia (WA) Respiratory Infections Linked Data Platform is a population-based cohort established to investigate the epidemiology of RSV and other respiratory infections in children aged 0-10 years, incorporating microbiological testing patterns, hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, and socio-demographic data.

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Up to one-third of young people live with chronic physical conditions (eg, diabetes, asthma, and autoimmune disease) that frequently involve recurrent pain, fatigue, activity limitations, stigma, and isolation.

Research

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are at a substantial risk of harm to themselves and others, experience high levels of functional impairment and typically are high users of tertiary healthcare to address their mental health concerns. As indicators for BPD typically emerge in adolescence, a day therapy service in Bentley, Western Australia, Touchstone Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), was developed as an intensive intervention for adolescents with indicators for BPD and its associated symptomology.

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There are well-described sex-based differences in how the immune system operates. In particular, cisgender (cis) females have a more easily activated immune system; associated with an increased prevalence of autoimmune diseases and adverse events following vaccinations. Conversely, cis males have a higher threshold for immune activation, and are more prone to certain infectious diseases, such as coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Research

Research in psychopharmacology in children and adolescents is an area of growing interest with numerous newer modalities becoming available in recent years. Nevertheless, it still lags significantly behind research in adult psychopharmacology although, in the last decade, the gap is beginning to be bridged with FDA approval for newer agents for the paediatric age group.

Research

Mental ill-health, substance use and their co-occurrence among sexuality diverse young people during earlier adolescence is relatively understudied. The preventive utility of positive school climate for sexuality diverse adolescents' mental health is also unclear, as well as the role of teachers in conferring this benefit.