Supporting Young People to Thrive

Adolescence is a time of great change, when young people take on new roles and responsibilities, renegotiate relationships with adults, peers, and the community, and experiment with things symbolic of adult life. These developmental tasks are often accompanied by the adoption of risk-taking behaviours that compromise health. Healthy risk-taking is a positive tool in an adolescent’s life for discovering, developing, and consolidating his or her identity.

It is the extent to which an adolescent engages in health-risk behaviours, and the overall impact of these behaviours on personal health and development, that are of increasing public health concern. The research suggests that young people who participate in multiple risk-taking behaviours not only increase the chance of damaging their health but may be masking serious psychological problems.

Given that in a recent Hong Kong survey of young people 30 per cent had moderate to extreme depression and that early assessment, prompt diagnosis and treatment is associated with a much better outcome this workshop is an essential component for any worker with young people in education, health and welfare.

Using an entertaining and informative mix of didactic teaching, interactive quiz, group discussion and case studies participants will:

• learn the most up to date research on the nature and extent of the problems facing young people with a focus on high prevalence disorders such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse
• understand and use key assessments paradigms:
• the key developmental tasks of adolescence
• risk and protective factor framework
• a key screening tool
• a model for building resilience
• the risk and protective factor framework
• the four world model
• practice the use of these paradigms in a group context

In addition to this, Andrea Downie will challenge current education approaches and share her work from the last 2 years on co-creating eco-systems of well-being in schools and communities whilst acknowledging the complexities facing our young people today.

Speakers: Dr Michael Carr-Gregg and Andrea Downie

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg 

Michael is one of Australia’s highest profile psychologists working in all form of media. He works at Corporate and Personal Consulting in Melbourne.as well as at Innowell – a collaboration between PWC and the University of Sydney. He is a columnist for Huffington Post Australia, Pacific Publications’ Girlfriend Magazine, as well as a regular columnist for Lights Out. He has worked in the area of health psychology, bullying, parenting adolescents and adolescent mental health.

Andrea Downie

Andrea Downie is the co-founder director and keynote speaker at Project Thrive Australia. She is a passionate educator who has diverse experience in the fields of education and corporate. Andrea currently teaches in the Centre for Positive Psychology, Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Her previous positions in schools have included primary classroom teaching, leadership roles in Wellbeing, Learning Enhancement, Technology, Gifted Education and Deputy Principal.