Online Resources
- Beyond Blue - "beyondblue is working to reduce the impact of depression and anxiety in the community by raising awareness and understanding, empowering people to seek help, and supporting recovery, management and resilience."
- Mood Gym - "Learn cognitive behaviour therapy skills for preventing and coping with depression"
- Reach Out - "ReachOut.com is Australia’s leading online youth mental health service, where you can get the help you need, where and when you need it."
- Head Space - "eheadspace provides online and telephone support to young people 12 - 25 and their family and friends"
- National Eating Disorder Collaboration - "The National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) brings research, expertise and evidence from leaders in the field together in one place. It's a one stop portal to make eating disorders information a lot more accessible for everyone."
- Hello Sunday Morning - "Changing your relationship with alcohol - one Sunday at a time."
- Head to Health - "Wherever you are on your mental health journey, Head to Health (H2H) is here to help you find the information, resources, and services that most suit your needs. Whether you want to improve your overall sense of wellbeing, or you need help with something that is concerning you, or you are helping someone you care about—Head to Health can point you to great online mental health resources"
- Bullying No Way - "Bullying. No Way! is managed by the Safe and Supportive School Communities (SSSC) Working Group. Members work together to create learning environments where every student and school community member is safe, supported, respected and valued."
- CatholicCare - "CatholicCare is the official welfare agency of the Catholic Church in diocese, delivering programs in the areas of ageing, dementia and disability care; employment, education, training and support services; and children, youth and family services."
- Black Dog - "The Black Dog Institute is a world leader in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder."
- NSW Health site - a comprehensive list of mental health services available in NSW, including those for children and teens.
Apps
The following Apps are recommended by renowned adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg and include his feedback in regard to each App:
- Mood Assessment Program: I ask all my patients to complete this web-based program online prior to the first consultation. It's a computerised assessment and diagnostic tool for mood disorders that gives me a thorough breakdown and a quite accurate diagnosis. It helps identify depressive sub-types, improves detection of bipolar disorder, identifies vulnerable personality styles, lifestyle and environmental factors contributing to the depressive illness, and provides a rational basis for development of a formulation and treatment plan.
- MoodGYM: I use this every single time for cases of depression and anxiety. Together, the client and I use it on synchronised tablets. It's ideal for cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).
- MoodKit: This smartphone app is the logical CBT follow-up homework for a young client - it's a toolkit for what they can do to improve their mood, recording events and feelings, and rating their mood along the way. They can email me how they are feeling each day or week.
- iCope: This was developed by mental health nurses. it offers alternatives to deliberate self-harm by providing practical and easy steps to distract, displace and seek-help, all at the touch of a button and accessible at all times.
- Smiling Mind: Young people adore this. Smiling Mind is a meditation app customised by age for anxiety and depression. We also use a skin conductance (galvanic skin response) machine to give visual biofeedback as they listen. Gizmos can help with engagement! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_skin_response
- Talking Anxiety: This phone app can help young people and families understand anxiety.
- Body Beautiful: A unique iPhone app that promotes positive body image and self-esteem among women and girls.
- DeepSleep: This app incorporates guided meditation to help overcome insomnia and get to sleep. It can be customised for short or long inductions, and has an alarm for waking up.
- SuperBetter: A remarkable online game that supports young people to achieve health-related goals by increasing resilience.
- Live Happy: A positive psychology app I use in the final stages of therapy.
- Pillboxie: This pill reminder app provides useful reminders to take medication.
- iCounselor: Incorporates strategies for managing a range of conditions, including anger, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression.
- Mnf: Always making excuses for not meditating? This is simply the best way to learn and enjoy mindfulness meditation.
There are also great resources available on the