Archive - March 12, 2007

As anyone who has been close to someone that has committed suicide knows, there is no other pain like that felt after the incident. – Peter Greene

Did you know that here in Australia, around 600 more people commit suicide each year than are killed in car accidents? We hear a lot about the tragic loss of life on our roads, and so we should, but we don’t often hear about the tragic loss of life through people who simply decide that they no longer wish to keep living.

One organisation trying to do something to turn these horrific figures around is Youth Focus. Youth Focus is a West Australian, non-profit community based organisation working with young people who are showing early signs associated with suicide, depression and self-harm. Youth Focus can also provide services to their families. Youth Focus values young lives by ensuring the emotional well-being of young people, developing their self worth and offering them the opportunity to reach their full potential. The Youth and Family Services Team comprises of professionally qualified youth and family counsellors with extensive experience working in this specialised area.

On the 26th of March 40 men and women will start a ride from Albany to Perth raising money to help fund the excellent work that Youth Focus does. This will be the fifth Ride for Youth and this year alone they hope to raise over $500 000 through the ride.

You can click here if you’d like to donate.

I’m going to keep up to date with training and preparations for the ride by chatting to a couple of the riders during my morning radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM.

I had the first of our chats this morning. I talked to James Sutherland who has been on each of the four rides so far and will be back on the bike this year. I also chatted to Sue Johnston who has been connected to the event since it started but is riding for the first time this year.

You can listen to our conversation by clicking here.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Cycling – Suicide – Radio

The battle lines are drawn. Let the war begin.

Some homes resemble a war zone. Siblings insist on battling it out to the end. Parents get more and more frazzled trying to keep the peace.

What can you do if your children are constantly fighting? Some people just pass it off as something that kids will do, no matter what, but if we don’t act to stop fighting, especially physical exchanges, our children can carry inadequate conflict resolution skills into adulthood.

Thankfully Emily and James get on very well and most of the time they can live peacefully with each other. Even when there is friction, they know how to push each others’ buttons and get a reaction but it’s very rare for it to get violent.

My regular Monday morning radio guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Joan Grosser from Growing Families Australia. Each week we chat about parenting issues and take talkback calls from listeners.

Today we talked about children who fight and looked at the foundations we need to teach our children to help them deal with conflict and their own feelings.

You can listen to today’s segment now by clicking here. If’ you’d like to save the mp3 and listen later just right click here and save the file to your computer.

Have you had to help your children to stop fighting and start working together? What have you found to work? How have you gone about teaching children respect for each other?

I’d love to get your point of view. Please feel free to leave a comment or two.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Sibling Rivalry – Parenting – Radio