Past Programs
Family and Children - 2003
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Alien Minds?: Getting Inside Babies' Heads
03/08/2003
As you peer into your baby's crib, can you be sure of what's going on inside their heads? Is theirs an alien mind, vastly different to our own? People long believed that babies were incapable of higher thought. Psychologist William James described babies as "living in a blooming buzzing confusion"; philosopher John Locke argued they were born as a blank slate; whilst Freud believed that children's most basic perceptions of the world were deeply distorted fantasies. But today's developmental psychologists argue that we shouldn't underestimate the brain capacity of babies. Join two of the world's leaders in the field, as they contemplate the brilliance of little minds.
Caring for Carers at Sage Hill
15/06/2003
Carers of people with mental illness, unsung heroes or unpaid slaves? This week, compelling and emotional stories from the lives of the people who live and breathe someone else's distress. The needs of carers are too often invisible, overshadowed by the intense and frightening experiences of their charge's illness. In regional Australia, where psychiatric facilities and professionals are few, support services for carers are especially lacking. The team at Sage Hill in the coastal town of Warrnambool in Victoria is responding to this isolation. It's an innovative drop-in centre that's making a real difference...Maryke Steffens pops in for a visit.
Invisible Children - When Mummy or Daddy Has the Sad Sickness
25/05/2003
This week, growing up with a parent who has mental illness. Small children frequently take on a carer role well before they're ready for it and their needs remain invisible to adult mental health workers and even to other family members. Many parents are frightened to disclose that they have children for fear that they'll be taken away. Natasha Mitchell reports on the critical issues, and efforts in Australia to put children's experiences at the fore.
An Aneurysm in the Family?
04/05/2003
The ticking time bomb that is an aneurysm. They can burst with very little warning and having one can be like living on a precipice. Surgery has its risks and life after a ruptured aneurysm brings all sorts of challenges. Only 1 in 10,000 of us are likely to experience one of these little beasts, usually in our brain. But in some extraordinary cases they run in the family across generations - mum, daughter, aunt, son - and an international study is trying to find out why this is. Sue Clark reports.
A Mental Health Odyssey in India. Episode 3 "Kendra's Story: A Foreigner in India"
16/03/2003
Four years ago, Kendra, an American expat, arrived in the
bustling metropolis of Chennai in the south of India with her German
diplomat husband and their 4 children. Just six months later her youngest
child, Sascha, died suddenly one night from respiratory failure. It was a
tragedy that shook her to the core and took her on a search for meaning in
suffering - in a land that is, all at once, embracing and alienating. How
does one's mind possibly cope with such all encompassing grief?
See also the companion written feature for this series, Troubled Minds: Madness and Culture, on the ABC's Online gateway to Science, The Lab.
A Mental Health Odyssey in India: Episode 1 - "Family And Stigma"
02/03/2003
Natasha Mitchell takes you on a mental health odyssey! In this first episode - family and stigma. In India arranged marriages are very much the norm, and the joint family, where a man and a woman live intimately with his extended family, is still a powerful institution. Over 90 per cent of people with severe mental illness, especially outside of the major cities, are cared for at home by their families within their communities, and may never receive a diagnosis. But in a country where families are fundamentally changing, and liberalization and urbanization are major social forces - as primary caregivers families are feeling the strain.
