Emerging Minds Podcast

Early relationships underpin infant mental health and lifelong wellbeing – but not all practitioners in the Australian mental health workforce feel confident in supporting infant mental health. In this episode, we’re joined by Vicky Gilroy, Director of Innovation and Research at the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV). She speaks about how iHV’s Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Champions Programme has helped support workforce development and system transformation to support children’s mental health.

This two-part series focuses on a recent Australian study about loneliness and its relationship with young people’s experiences of bullying and undesirable social connections. In the first episode, we’re joined by youth advocate Amber Brock-Fabel and academic Dr Ben Lohmeyer, who co-designed the study with young people. They share findings from the study that redefine loneliness as being created by social dynamics within school environments, rather than stemming from isolation. Amber and Ben also discuss the process of co-designing the study; the increased incidence of loneliness for young people in Australia; and the connections between bullying, social systems and experiences of loneliness.

In this episode from the Emerging Minds Families podcast, Dr Billy Garvey (author, podcaster and developmental paediatrician) explores emotion regulation, how children build resilience and the role parents play in creating safe and supportive environments for children.

In the second episode of this two-part series, Lisa Hillan, a non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social worker, talks about her experience in working with and alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

In the first episode of this two-part series, Grant Sarra, a Goreng Goreng man from Queensland, joins us to share an Aboriginal perspective on what organisational allyship looks like for individuals, teams and broader organisations.

To mark the 200th episode of the Emerging Minds podcast, we wanted to look to the future of infant and child mental health in Australia. Practitioners, researchers, parents and young people discuss the key concerns and priorities for supporting infants’ and children’s mental health, common misconceptions about mental health and wellbeing, and systemic barriers to improving outcomes for children and families.

In this podcast episode, Professor Daryl Higgins shares his research insights on child-safe organisational strategies and public health approaches to protecting children. Daryl was involved in the 2023 Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), which showed how disturbingly common it is for children in Australia to experience abuse and neglect. Daryl shares the findings from this study and its implications for prevention and early intervention policies and practices with children and young people.

In the first episode of this two-part series, Dr Carmela Bastian talks with child protection specialists Dr Amy Bromley, Arabella Stravolemos and Chloe Henderson about their approaches to child-centred practice. The conversation explores descriptions of practice that genuinely prioritise children’s safety, emotional needs, wellbeing, voice and rights.

In this episode, therapist Sophie McEvoy discusses her work with children who have experienced sexual abuse. Sophie describes her practice in helping children to use their own words, communication preferences and meaning-making to describe the trauma events in their lives in ways that are supportive and hopeful. She also shares her experiences in working with non-offending parents to support their children’s recovery.

In the second episode of this two-part series, neonatologist Dr Natalie Duffy explores the key themes expressed by infants and parents with lived experience of being hospitalised in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This episode considers how this window into the infants’ world can guide practitioners to engage in ways that are lifesaving and nurturing of both physical and mental health development.

In this episode, we speak with family counsellor Carolyn Markey about her work gathering and documenting children’s knowledge, and how this knowledge can then be shared with others, particularly fathers.

In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Damien Riggs, a professor in psychology at Flinders University and a psychotherapist who specialises in working with transgender young people. In this conversation, Damien talks about gender-affirming practice. He shares how practitioners in general health and social services can use their skills to work with children and young people in gender-affirming ways that support their mental health and wellbeing. He also explores how practitioners can seek learning opportunities to increase their knowledge and confidence in working with gender diverse children and young people.