To celebrate NAIDOC Week 2025 and its theme, The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy, this Expert Insights episode brings together an all First Nations panel to explore how the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) Framework can be used to support and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.

Our panellists will discuss how the SEWB wheel can be a powerful tool in strengthening identity, connection, and resilience in young clients, as well as the role of protective factors in preventing suicide and fostering strong futures. Through a strengths-based lens, this conversation will highlight how the SEWB Framework is applicable across contexts and communities beyond First Nations communities, making it a valuable resource for all practitioners in both clinical and community settings.

Join us for this important discussion on how we can provide better wellbeing support and services to empower the next generation, ensuring they are supported to thrive, lead, and carry forward the strength and wisdom of their ancestors.

Panellists:

Dr Clinton Schultz – Director of First Nations Strategy and Partnerships and Head of First Nations Research at Black Dog Institute.

Eliza Kitchener – National Network Specialist, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre.

Aunty Karyn – Lived Experience Representative.

This important webinar is designed to equip health professionals and leaders with the tools, insights, and strategies to foster mental wellbeing in their teams during crises and beyond.

This session will:

* Present key research findings on healthcare workers' mental health needs during crises like COVID-19.

* Introduce an insightful report and checklist as actionable resources for enhancing mental health support in healthcare settings.

* Demonstrate how addressing mental health can strengthen teams and improve organisational outcomes.

* Use compelling data to outline what needs to change and the steps leaders can take to drive improvement.

* Empower healthcare leaders with clear, implementable recommendations for creating mentally healthy workplaces.

Facilitator: Dr Peter Baldwin – Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog Institute | Co- Investigator, Future-Proofing the Frontline guide

Panellists: Prof Natasha Smallwood – Respiratory Physician, Department of Respiratory & Sleep Medicine at The Alfred Hospital; Head Chronic Respiratory Disease Group and Respiratory Research Training Lead Respiratory Research @ The Alfred School of Translational Medicine, Monash University; and Chief Investigator, Future-Proofing the Frontline report

Dr Bethan Richards – Chief Medical Wellness Officer / Director SLHD MDOK Centre | Rheumatologist, Co- Director Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, PhD Health Professional

Jess Maher- Lived Experience Representative, endorsed enrolled nurse

Future-Proofing the Frontline: Organisational strategies to support frontline healthcare workers and leaders during times of crisis, is a guide that brings together insights from diverse perspectives and multiple sources of data to understand the best organisational strategies for supporting the mental health of healthcare workers.

The guide and Organisational Checklist are available here: https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/news/future-proofing-the-frontline/

Despite decades of government investment, significant research endeavour, and a growing commitment to mental health training and response activities in schools and workplaces, rates of mental health in Australia are rising.

The scale of this issue is staggering: a recent report shows that 494,000 Australians with moderate to severe mental health problems are not receiving the support they desperately need. Long wait times and a shortage of mental health professionals are leaving vulnerable Australians without access to timely and appropriate care, particularly those in rural and remote areas. When people finally get care, it doesn’t always help.

We know the current system is broken. We know what we need – a robust mental health system that is well-staffed, adequately funded and integrated across the country that will lay the foundations for a mentally healthier future. But how do we get there? How do we plan for a better future? And what is the role of Health Professionals?

Listen to our Mental Health Month edition of Expert Insights were Black Dog Institute’s Dr Peter Baldwin, Senior Research Fellow and Policy Research Manager, will share findings from BDI’s recent mental health poll and discuss the key issues facing the health sector.

Panel Members: -

Dr Peter Baldwin - Senior Research Fellow and Policy Research Manager, Black Dog Institute

Dr Laura Kampel - Head of Clinical Services and Senior Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog Institute

Matt - Lived Experience Representative

Facilitator: -

Dr Sarah Barker - Clinical Psychologist

The median age of onset for mental disorders is 14 years. This means, 50% of individuals who will develop mental illness will have already developed the disorder by the age of 14 years.

Since children's diagnoses are missed, they do not receive the care that they need and are less likely to receive help, which has a flow-on effect to adolescence where more complicated conditions can present.

In this episode, Professor Jennie Hudson from Black Dog Institute shares her findings on understanding the onset of anxiety and depression in children and teenagers, focusing on correcting the myth that mental health problems begin in adolescence.

Joining her on the panel, is Psychiatrist Dr Brenda Heyworth who shares her insights from working with children and teenagers, and by Fiona, a lived experience representative who also discusses the topic from her perspective.

Panel Members: -

- Professor Jennie Hudson - Director of Research at Black Dog Institute
- Dr Brenda Heyworth - Psychiatrist, Educator and Facilitator
- Fiona - Lived Experience Representative

Facilitator: -

- Dr Sarah Barker - Clinical Psychologist

The term dMH (digital mental health) covers a wide range of online resources for mental health care. This includes, but is not limited to, the CBT-based treatment programs that Australia has led the world in developing. The scientific evidence is important for practitioner confidence but sometimes our patients and clients want to know about it too. This webinar will make it easier for you to explain why you are recommending an online treatment program.

Please join Dr. Jan Orman and Prof Nick Titov, founder of the Mindspot Clinic at Macquarie University, who will discuss the evidence to support online CBT delivery. They will talk about the evidence to support the use of online mental health treatment programs in general as well as the Mindspot Clinic specifically.

Learning outcomes:

1. By the end of the webinar participants will be able to:
2. Describe some of the research that supports the use of online mental health treatment programs
3. Describe the situations in which they may consider recommending an online program
4. Explain how they would talk to a patient about the evidence base for these programs and the best ways to get benefit from them

Nick Titov is a Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University. He is also a Clinical Psychologist and Executive Director of the Australian MindSpot Clinic. MindSpot is a digital psychology service, which provides psychological assessments and treatments to adults across Australia. MindSpot employs mental health professionals to deliver care, it is accredited under the National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards, and it has been funded by the Australian Government since 2012.

Nick has worked on >100 trials of psychological interventions and has published numerous reports of outcomes of digital psychology services in peer reviewed papers including in the Lancet Digital Health. Nick serves on multiple advisory groups to national and international organisations.

Dr Jan Orman MBBS MPsychMed is a Sydney GP with a special interest in mental health and psychological medicine. She has a Masters in Psychological Medicine (CBT) from the University of NSW and has combined general practice and specialised work in mental health for over two decades. Jan has also worked for more than 10 years as a facilitator in Black Dog Institute’s Professional Education team. She is currently responsible for developing the content of, and delivering, the GP education programs for the Black Dog Institute’s arm of the e-Mental Health in Practice Project.

Click here to see the slides

Can engagement with the arts improve children's wellbeing? In this episode, we talk to Dr Diane Macdonald (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Black Dog Institute/School of Psychiatry, UNSW) about her research on Culture Dose for Kids, an arts engagement program for children and their caregivers that has been designed to improve mental health and wellbeing in children who are experiencing anxiety.

Joining on the panel is Art Therapist, Jennifer Blau, and Lucia Barrera, a Culture Dose for Kids parent participant, researcher, and UNSW Scientia PhD Scholar (Mental health and arts-based knowledge creation/translation).

Listen to explore the promise of an arts-based intervention for childhood anxiety that highlights the value of the role of community and cultural care in children’s mental health and well-being.

Panel Members
Dr Diane Macdonald - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Black Dog Institute/School of Psychiatry, UNSW)
Jennifer Blau - Art Therapist, Art of Wellbeing
Lucia Barrera - Parent Participant.

Facilitator
Dr Sarah Barker

To celebrate the 2024 NAIDOC week (7 - 14 July) theme, Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud (www.naidoc.org.au), this Expert Insights session focuses on the enduring wisdom, vitality, and strength in First Nations communities, passed down through generations. We explore the power of cultural healing approaches within suicide prevention, with a particular focus on what works, achievements, and excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention.

Listen and learn from the rich contributions and wisdom of First Nations cultural healing approaches, which can be leveraged to promote positive wellbeing for Indigenous communities and beyond.

Panel Members

· Maddison O'Grady-Lee, Clinical Psychology PhD candidate (UNSW/Black Dog Institute), Dalai Lama Peace Fellow, and winner of The Diana Award

· Shannon McNeair, a proud Malgana woman and a Psychologist from McNeair Aboriginal Psychological Services

· Uncle Monwell Levi - First Nations Lived Experience Representative

Facilitator

· Dr Sarah Barker, Clinical Psychologist

Research evidence clearly supports exposure as a key ingredient in first line treatment for anxiety, yet practitioners can be reluctant to use it with children and young people.

In this episode, Professor Jennie Hudson from Black Dog Institute will share her research findings on exposure therapy for anxious children and adolescents as part of an app and programs she has developed for them and their caregivers. We will be joined by clinical psychologist, Anna McKinnon, who will share her clinical insights from extensive exposure therapy with children and families over the years about how we can use it effectively and by a lived experience panelist who will share their experience as a caregiver of an anxious young person.

Listen to the conversation about the benefits of exposure therapy for anxious children, young people, and their caregivers and about approaches that practitioners can take to successfully introduce and effectively use exposure in order to have the best chance of children and their families achieving lasting, positive outcomes in anxiety management.

Panel Members

• Jennie Hudson – Professor and Director of Research at Black Dog Institute
• Anna McKinnon – Clinical Psychologist
• Emma – Lived Experience Representative

Facilitator

• Dr Sarah Barker, Clinical Psychologist