Researchers in Canberra, backed by funding from AFFIRM, believe they can detect school students at risk of mental illness or suicide.
Their innovative project will develop a screening instrument, based on earlier work with adults.
It’s the brainchild of Dr Phil Batterham and Dr Alison Calear from the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University.
The two-year trial is aimed at finding a series of questions that provide accurate insight into the minds of young people, without triggering personal distress.
“Given the high and growing toll of youth suicide in Australia, there is an urgent need for better methods to detect suicide risk in young people,” says Dr Batterham.
The project will involve constant feedback from students, teachers, researchers and clinicians.
This isn’t the first project by Dr Batterham to be funded by AFFIRM.
He was also granted starter funding for an innovative online program: FitMindKit. That proved so successful that he secured further funding from Australian Rotary Health for a larger rollout.
AFFIRM would like to thank the generous support of the 2017 P² Invitational to make this project possible. The corporate tennis event, presented by P² (P Squared) Advisory, raises money for Canberra-based charities.