Our thinking Archives - Page 2 of 35 - Jesuit Social Services

World Suicide Prevention Day 2021
- 10 September 2021
World Suicide Prevention Day is a time to be grateful for the growing movement to recognise people’s mental illness and desperation and to stand by people who have lost friends and relatives to suicide, writes ANDY HAMILTON SJ. Almost everyone you meet says that the period of Coronavirus has been stressful. They have variously fallen…
World Health Day 2021
- 6 April 2021
Good health for the young, the old and the vulnerable must be built on respect for their humanity and on good relationships, writes ANDY HAMILTON SJ. Most Australians are fortunate enough to be able to take their health for granted for much of their lives. We have sufficient food to keep us strong; we have…
Mental health and wellbeing in a time of COVID-19
- 4 December 2020
Andy Hamilton SJ During the coronavirus crisis mental health has been a focus of concern. This is not surprising. Our mental health is held within a delicate yet strong web of relationships that we ordinarily take for granted. Our daily routine, our workplace and fellow workers, our employment, our family, our schooling, our church associations,…
International Day of People with Disability
- 1 December 2020
The International Day of People with Disability invites us to remember people who experience from different kinds of disability and to enter their lives compassionately, writes ANDY HAMILTON SJ. When we see the extraordinary agility and skills of tennis players and other athletes with a disability, the poetry written by people who experience mental illness,…
Social Inclusion Week
- 26 November 2020
In his post for Social Inclusion Week, ANDY HAMILTON SJ writes that social inclusion depends on social friendship – the readiness to welcome others into our lives. In recent years people have spoken much more openly about what it is like to be excluded. We are better informed about what it means to be racially…
Removing the stigma from mental illness
- 8 October 2020
Mental wellbeing during a pandemic - a chat with Support After Suicide
- 15 May 2020
The social distancing, isolation and separation from regular routines and social connections that are now part of our daily lives as a result of COVID-19 have impacted us all in different ways. Dr Louise Flynn, Manager of Jesuit Social Services’ Support After Suicide program, discusses mental wellbeing during the pandemic and how the work of…
The abuse of people in detention happens in secret; OPCAT findings must be made public
- 13 February 2020
With suicide on the rise, postvention services can save lives
- 3 December 2018
In September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its annual Causes of Death report which provides analysis on Australia’s leading causes of death. Deaths by suicide 2008-2017 It showed that the number of people who died by suicide in Australia in 2017 rose by 9.1 per cent from 2016, and that suicide remains the leading…
Adequate funding for postvention programs can reduce the risk of further suicide
- 21 November 2018
Programs like Support After Suicide, which work with people bereaved by the loss of a loved one, also work to reduce the risk of further suicide. With suicide numbers on the rise, it is important programs like this receive adequate funding, writes Jesuit Social Services’ Policy and Advocacy volunteer TONY SANTOSPIRITO. Many Australians have been…