Our thinking Archives - Jesuit Social Services

International Day of People with Disability
- 3 December 2025
If we group people together in groups, we risk focusing on their difference from ourselves, define them by that difference and not by what we share, and then avoid them out of embarrassment or fear, reflects Andy Hamilton SJ.
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2025
- 17 October 2025
"We should not need a special day to encourage us to eradicate poverty in Australia. Poverty is more than a problem to be studied. It wears the face of people whom we meet in the street, through the Vinnies, and see sleeping on the streets. Poverty could wear the face of ourselves, of our children,"…
World Suicide Prevention Day 2025
- 10 September 2025
World Suicide Prevention Day reminds us that suicide is about more than statistics, reflects ANDY HAMILTON SJ. Suicide is not just about numbers. Even so, we should be concerned that, after some years of decline, the number of people who took their lives have risen this year. It remains the main killer of young people,…
Signs of Hope on the Edge: Social Justice Statement 2025-2026
- 20 August 2025
ANDY HAMILTON SJ reflects on the recently released 2025-26 Social Justice Statement, whose theme is "Signs of Hope on the Edge: Serving Homeless People with Mental Ill Health."
International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- 2 December 2024
On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we reflect that the reality for persons with disabilities is often one of inequality and of neglect by others. ANDY HAMILTON SJ writes that in all our personal and public relationships with persons with disabilities we must ensure that they can exercise agency in their lives. The naming…
A reflection on the times by Father Andy Hamilton SJ
- 11 December 2023
These have been hard days in a hard world, haven’t they? They favour hard people who wear masks and helmets, carry clubs, and lock their purses. We had hoped that the Referendum on the Indigenous Voice would be a celebration of peace and reconciliation, a gentling of the community. Instead, it was a bitter time…
Evidence shows flexible mental health and wellbeing supports essential
- 6 December 2023
Jesuit Social Services has a decades-long history of working with people to improve their mental health and wellbeing so they can then build healthy social connections and be more engaged in their community. We offer a range of mental health and wellbeing programs, and take pride in our individualised and person-centred approach. Recent data from…
Victorian State Election 2022: Provide secure, long-term funding for state-wide suicide prevention and bereavement services
- 24 November 2022
Jesuit Social Services’ recently released Victorian State Election platform, A state of opportunity, builds on 45 years of advocacy and action, to outline our vision for a just society across a range of interconnected social policy areas, from a fairer justice system, to support for people experiencing multiple and complex needs such as mental illness,…
World Mental Health Day 2022
- 10 October 2022
Andy Hamilton SJ reflects on World Mental Health Day 2022.
World Suicide Prevention Day
- 9 September 2022
World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10) invites us to reach out especially to them to encourage them speak about the death of the person whom they loved and about how it has affected them. It reminds us that suicide is about more than statistics, writes ANDY HAMILTON SJ.