Removing the stigma from mental illness

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.

"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 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,…

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." 

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…

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…

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…