Emerging Minds Podcast Emerging Minds

This episode is part one of a four-part series developed in partnership with and led by the University of Western Australia’s Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing research program and the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention. In this conversation, Zaccariah Cox and Emma Carlin from Kimberley Aboriginal Medial Services share profound insights into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB). They discuss historical, political and cultural determinants impacting these communities, emphasising the transformative power of the SEWB framework in practical settings. The conversation highlights the importance of relationships, a strengths-based approach, and integrating Aboriginal leadership into healthcare services for meaningful change.

In this episode, our guests Michael Hogan (ARACY – Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth), Sally Staton (Queensland Brain Institute) and Vanya (lived experience advisor) describe the contributions that neuroscience can make to practice with children and families. They discuss how common understandings about children’s brain development can be applied to every aspect of a child’s life, and how this can support the work of mental health professionals.

In this episode, we explore ideas and practices for supporting parents to be child-focused in their approach to post-separation parenting.

In this episode, we’re joined by Natalie Papps, Alice Morgan and Sally Groom, creators of ‘One of a Kind’: a storybook for children who are in foster or kinship care due to their parent (or parents) experiencing mental illness. Natalie, Alice and Sally discuss the process of collaborating on the book with services as well as parents and young people with lived experience of parental mental illness and out-of-home care. They highlight some of the challenges children in care face, including being unaware of why they are in care, and how ‘One of a Kind’ supports practitioners and carers to open up these essential conversations.

One of the most effective ways to support children’s wellbeing during parental separation is to support their parents. In this episode, we talk with practitioners and parents about the importance of supporting parents’ wellbeing during relationship separation, and some ways to do this.

In this episode, cultural consultants Dana Shen and Shirley Young explore practices that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants and families’ wellbeing during the first 2,000 days.