Disclaimer: This article presents general information only, it does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with your GP for medical advice. If you are in distress and require emergency aid, dial 000.
Sleep
This Way Up offers a Free “Managing Insomnia Course”.
Open Arms provides support for current and ex-serving ADF personnel and their families – free, confidential counselling, group treatment programs, suicide prevention training and community and peer network to support mental health and wellbeing.
Grow is a community-based organisation that has helped tens of thousands of Australians recover from mental illness through a unique program of mutual support and personal development.
Dr Michael Mosley “Do You Struggle To Sleep? Science May Have An Answer”.
Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab - Google talk.
Food
The Food & Mood Centre
A collaborative research centre led by Deakin University in Australia - a multi-disciplinary team studying the ways in which what we eat influences our brain, mood, and mental health. This centre is unique in the world: it is the only centre specifically focusing on Nutritional Psychiatry research.
Action for Happiness
Offers free monthly calendars are packed with actions you can take to help create a happier and kinder world.
Action for Happiness - Free Calendars
Communication
TED Talk: 10 Ways to Have Better Conversations
Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. "Go out, talk to people, listen to people," she says. "And, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed."
10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation
Talking about your mental health at work – you may be wondering if you should talk to someone at work about your mental health. It’s a personal decision that can be a difficult one to make. The READY app is an evidence-based tool developed by researchers at the University of Sydney Brain and Mind Centre, with significant input from people with lived experience of workplace mental health recovery. It can help inform you about the decision to tell people in your workplace about your mental health concerns.
Dadirri (an aboriginal word for “deep listening”):
"To know me is to breathe with me, to breathe with me is to listen deeply, to listen deeply is to connect. The sound of deep calling to deep, Dadirri the deep inner spring inside us. We call on it and it calls on us"
The Drama Triangle at Work (4 min video) - aligns to a strengths-based approach
Dan Siegel "Flipping Your Lid: A Scientific Explanation” i.e. the brain under stress / acute crisis (7 min video)
Celeste Headlee We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter (a Google talk – around 1 hr long)
Books
The following books may be helpful resources:
- Minding Your Mind by Ian Hickie, James O'Loghlin - for anyone who wants the best for their mental well-being but might not know the best way to get there.
- Changing Minds: The go-to Guide to Mental Health for You, Family and Friends by Dr Mark Cross
- Change Your Thinking by Sarah Edelman (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
- Good Thinking: A Teenager's Guide to Managing Stress and Emotion Using CBT by Louise Remond and Sarah Edelman
- Listen: How to Find the Words for Tender Conversations by Kathryn Mannix
- Breath, the New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- Why We Sleep by Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab explains the latest discoveries about sleep and how it impacts our life, wellness, and lifespan.
- Burnout: A guide to identifying burnout and pathways to recovery by Gordon Parker (founder of Black Dog Institute, psychiatrist) Gabriela Tavella & Kerrie Eyers.
- The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety: A Guide to Breaking Free from Anxiety, Phobias, and Worry Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Georg H. Eifert and John P. Forsyth.
- Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope by Johann Hari.
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
- See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill is an insightful book on domestic abuse - not about blame or recriminations but about understanding so we can be helpful.
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg – if you’re keen to change a habit (e.g. more self-care), this will give you some great insights. A review is available at The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg NY Times Review.
Bibliotherapy play list: e.g. Literature & Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing
Other Apps
There are 10,000+ MH and meditation apps and only a fraction of those have been professionally evaluated – to help with making a good choice, you may want to look at:
Depression and mental health apps: How to tell the good from the bad - ABC News
Beacon a portal to online applications for mental and physical disorders where a panel of health experts categorise, review and rate websites and apps, reviews of internet support groups are now also included.
Emergency Plus App
This is a national app that shows users their location coordinates using GPS built into smart phones. When users call Triple Zero (000) in an emergency, this app enables them to tell the emergency call-taker their exact location.
Australian Red Cross First Aid app – videos & checklists, including mental health.
First Aid app | Australian Red Cross
3 Good Things – a free app recommended by leading psychologist, Michael Carr-Gregg - makes keeping a gratitude journal easy.
Three Good Things - Gratitude - Apple App Store
Three Good Things - Gratitude - Google Play App Store
Check In – another BeyondBlue app that guides you through 4 steps to help you plan your conversation with someone you’re concerned about.
Calm Harm – an app for anyone you know who self-harms – some tools for “surfing the wave” or urge to self-harm using the 5 min rule or the 15 min rule.
Smiling Mind – Is a versatile and practical mental fitness toolkit. Designed for minds of all ages and stages, the new Smiling Mind App helps you learn the skills that promote mental wellbeing and create the habits to thrive.
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