Suggestions
Stephen Carbone
Freelance advocate and advisor.
Stephen Carbone is a highly educated professional with a diverse academic background and extensive experience in the field of public health and psychology. He holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Melbourne, a Postgraduate Diploma of Psychology and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology from Monash University, a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the University of Melbourne.
Throughout his career, Stephen has been involved in various organizations, having served as a Freelance advocate and advisor at Freelance and as the CEO at Prevention United. His leadership roles and advocacy work have allowed him to make significant contributions to the community and the field of public health.
Highlights
We've being hearing a lot lately from senior politicians expressing concerns about young people's mental health, and in particular the impacts of social media. While it's great that these guys have finally started paying attention to a problem that has been escalating over the last 15 years, and that experts have been drawing their attention to for years, it's incredibly disappointing to see how simplistic their proposed solution to this issue is.
Put simply, the message I am hearing from them is that all we need to do to solve the youth mental health crisis is to ban young people under a certain age from using social media. Tick and flick. Problem fixed.
There's no mention of taking on the social media giants through stronger legislation and regulation, or addressing any of the other factors that we know are contributing to the surge in youth mental health to prevent mental health conditions from occurring in the first place, and no mention at all of why they all continue to chronically under-fund mental healthcare and wellbeing supports and services for children and youth.
My own view is, that if politicians are really interested in children and young people's mental wellbeing, then they would take on the social media giants and force them to make their money making products less harmful rather than introducing age bans. They would also dramatically increase funding for preventive mental health and mental healthcare for 0-25 year olds. Let's see how fair dinkum they really are.
Wondering about the impacts of screen time and social media on youth mental health?
Then why not come along to our upcoming webinar and hear from Prevention United's Youth Advisory Group members Em and Merry, alongside Scarlett Smout from the Matilda Centre and Luke Martin from Beyond Blue as they discuss how we can balance the competing risks and benefits of screen time and social media use among young people, to promote and protect their mental wellbeing. Register at https://lnkd.in/gj9z5e-Q. If you’d like to read our latest Policy Brief on this issue go to https://bit.ly/44U60Au
