A new mental health podcast for Australian parents

For the past five years, Emerging Minds has been creating podcasts for professionals that explore effective ways to support infant and child mental health. Now, the new Emerging Minds Families podcast aims to do the same for parents and families.

Over the past 12 months, Emerging Minds has been working with families across Australia to learn more about the kinds of resources they need to best support their children’s mental health. These conversations, along with insights from practitioners and researchers, have guided the development of Emerging Minds Families: an online resource hub designed to help families better understand and support infant and child mental health.

As part of this program, the Emerging Minds Families team will be delivering a fortnightly podcast, starting 22 November 2022. Parents, families and practitioners will discuss infant and child mental health, offer advice, debunk myths and provide understanding for families who are striving to do the best for their children.

In this episode, you will meet the hosts of the Emerging Minds Families podcast: Ben Rogers, Alicia Ranford and Nadia Rossi. They will share how they’ve spent the past 12 months working with families to develop this podcast series, what they learned during this process, as well as the important role of co-design in developing resources for families. The team will also describe the ‘knowledgeable best friend’ approach that guides their work, how it evolved, and how it will support both families and practitioners.

In this episode:

• Find out how the Emerging Minds Families podcast came about and what listeners can expect to learn (1:34)
• Unpack the ‘knowledgeable best friend’ tone and how it was developed as a way to help families consider their child’s mental health support needs (2:49)
• Hear some examples of the podcasts that will be delivered through the Emerging Minds Families channel (11:23)
• Discover the importance of helping families to attempt strategies to help their children, but also to seek help from professionals where they need extra support (14:29)
• Learn why it’s important to create content that benefits all families, including those that are currently facing adversity (27:20)

Further links and information:

• Emerging Minds Families (website)
• Introducing Emerging Minds Families (video)