information for a national study, see details below and if you are able to help click on the link below for more information.

Research Study Details

The study aims to investigate men’s experiences of depression and suicidal behaviour (thoughts, plans, attempts), with a view to discovering factors that contribute to, or interrupt suicidal behaviour, and factors contributing to taking action, or not taking action, during a suicidal crisis.

In each stage and territory, we will be conducting one-on-one interviews in every state and territory with five men over the age of 18, who have made a suicide attempt between 6 and 18 months ago.

In addition, we will also explore through a focus group the views of adult family and friends who have been impacted by depression and suicidal behaviours in a male friend or family member in the same time period.

The focus groups and interviews are designed so that we might learn how to better recognise, interrupt and prevent suicidal behaviour in Australian males.

Applicants are sought from the following regions:

Sydney metro (NSW), Melbourne metro (VIC), Canberra metro (ACT), Adelaide metro (SA), Darwin area (NT), Launceston area (TAS), Cairns area (QLD), Bunbury area (WA).

Click here for more details

Mens experiences public flyer

Mens experiences study information sheet

To register your interest, contact men’s health project team on: (02) 9382 8368 OR menshealth@unsw.edu.au

Stefan Gomoll grabbed his son from a playground in Baden, Austria

• He flew four-year-old Caspar to his home on Sark, Channel Islands
• Gomoll and Caspar’s mother have been involved in a custody battle
• Sark law states the father has full custody if a couple are unmarried

By Sara Malm

A British man who kidnapped his son from his mother in Austria has revealed he took him to his home on the Channel Islands as the local laws do not give unmarried mothers right to custody for children born out of wedlock.

Millionaire lawyer Stefan Gomoll snatched his four-year-old son Caspar and took him by private jet to the island  of Sark in October last year.

Mr Gomoll has been involved in a bitter custody row with Caspar’s mother Dominique Ruggaber, who is of German descent but living in Austria, where a local court awarded her sole custody last year.

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Taken: Four-year-old Caspar was flown to the Channel Island of Sark by his father Stefan Gomoll (right), who took the boy from a playground in Baden, Austria when Caspar’s grandfather went to the bathroom

Gomoll is a Sark resident and also a chairman of the island’s Finance and Commerce Committee.

In October last year, he visited Ms Ruggaber, from whom he has been separated since April 2012, in Baden, Lower Austria, demanding to see Caspar.

Ms Ruggaber allowed Mr Gomoll to take Caspar to a nearby playground under the premise that her father, Caspar’s maternal grandfather, accompanied them.

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Distressed: Caspar’s mother Dominique Ruggaber had been awarded sole custody by an Austrian court.

However, when the older man went to the bathroom, Mr Gomoll grabbed the boy and drove to the airport where he left on a private plane before police could act to put out an alert.

Once back in Sark he filed an application for custody under the islands archaic laws, which state that as he and Ms Ruggaber never married, he is entitled to sole custody.

This is now to be heard at the Supreme Court in the Channel Islands, and until then the youngster has to remain in Sark.

The mother’s lawyer Britta Schönhart said: ‘The father has appealed the decisions which have so far been in the mother’s favour, but until the final ruling nothing counts.

‘Until that happens the mother and child are not allowed to leave the island. It is difficult because the financial resources are not unlimited and she now has to stay in Sark.’

Mr Gomoll and Ms Ruggaber split in April 2012 and she returned to Austria to live with the child near her parents in Baden.

In February last year, Ms Ruggaber returned to the Channel Islands, but left again in August after Mr Gomoll threatened to send Caspar to boarding school.

Mr Gomoll faces child abduction charges in Austria and the prosecutor in Wiener Neustadt is investigating the case.

As both Caspar’s passports, he has joint German and British nationality, were with Ms Ruggaber when he was seized, Austrian police are also investigating how Mr Gomoll managed to get the boy onto the plane without a passport.

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Worried: Ms Ruggaber moved to Baden to be close to her parents, pictured, and Mr Ruggaber, Caspar’s grandfather, left, was at the playground when he was taken

Caspar was taken from the town of Baden in Austria and turned up in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. His father is based in the nearby island of Sark

We’re still not perfect, but most men are now playing a more hands-on role in   raising their children, writes counsellor Nick Theophilou

Studies of men’s participation in the home point to a continual improvement Photo: Alamy

By Nick Theophilou

Times have changed. No doubt about it. When it comes to parenting, many men   are doing well, thank you very much. The days of the unapproachable   stay-at-work dad is fast becoming a relic of the past. It’s being replaced   by a more responsible and caring vision of fatherhood. Yes, it took us men a   while, but we seem to have clocked that bringing up children is a shared   job. A 50-50 undertaking.

So I was surprised to read recently that Alex Proud believes that most men “are   not naturally as good at parenting as their partners”. Sure,   not all men get it right. As a counsellor, I can testify to that. But,   generally speaking, aren’t we getting better as we plough into the 21st   century? Don’t men now make better dads than our predecessors? Isn’t the   graph pointing upwards?

The numbers certainly are. Studies of men’s participation in the home point to   a continual improvement. UK research body The   Fatherhood Institutefound   that the amount of men working flexi-time to care for their children rose   from 11% to 31% between 2002 and 2005 alone. Men are now spending more time   caring for their children, and doing more work around the house (roughly 150   minutes a day). Plenty of partners may still complain that their man is not   doing his fair share of the work, but it seems irrefutable that men are   getting better with time.

Alongside this is the increasing trend for house-husbands. A   study conducted by Aviva Insurance found that the number of stay-at-home   dads rose from 60,000 to 600,000 between 2000 and 2010. One in six   said this was because the woman earned more, while 75% said they felt lucky   to spend so much time with their children and only 10% said running around   after children made them feel less of a man. Being a hands-on father is   losing its stigma.

Government policy is helping fathers in their plight. While the dads of   yesteryear would have to take holiday from work to spend time with their   newborn child, British men are now eligible for two week’s paternity leave.   The paid leave helps today’s dads become attuned to their children from the   off: research has shown that childcare   quickly brings about hormonal changes in both men and women, making   them more sensitive to the needs of their children.

My experience as a father, husband, and counsellor backs this up. As men spend   more time with their children and take on more duty of care, they become   both better fathers and more rounded human beings.

Take my friend Alan. Early on, Alan and his wife Diane decided that she would   continue to work and he would look after the children during the day.   Diane’s earning power was greater than his, so they reasoned that it made   sense.

Alan’s openness to the experience of fatherhood has made him more humble and   open. Having known him for thirty years, I can say that becoming a father   has been the making of him. Before fatherhood he acted as if the world was   all about him. Now his focus is on what’s best for his family, and I see how   he cares for his three children. He speaks softly to them, and when they   want something to eat or need their nappies changed, the task falls equally   to him and Diane.

Don’t get me wrong, Alan isn’t perfect. He’s learning to consult Diane before   making decisions, and I’ve seen her intervene in the past when he’s scolded   the children harshly. As a couple, they argue – but they do it in private,   and when they get stuck they have counselling to help them along.

Alan and Diane are close. They touch, hug, kiss, and yes, sometimes stand   apart from each other and don’t talk. I see a family unit that happily plays   together, quarrels, and makes up. Alan stays at home; Diane goes out to   work. It’s entirely natural.

Being a stay-at-home dad doesn’t come so easily to everyone. As a couples   counsellor, I have met many other men who have taken on the fathering role   and been left with a feeling of ambivalence, even bitterness. Society may be   coming round to the idea of the man in the house, but the wheels of change   are slow, and many men are still brought up to believe they should be the   provider.

Are the dads of today better than the dads of twenty years ago? Of course they   are. They do more work in the home and communicate better with their   children. Can they do more? Of course they can. We all can.

As you know, life is a work in progress.

Nick Theophilou’s book 10 Stories About What Men Are Doing Well is   available on Amazon.com

https://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Subject:

Our Children, our families, our culture, our future under attack.

Comment:

Dear Sir,

Please help our children, Family courts are an abomination of political violence, treachery, bigotry, sedition and corruption.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely; John Dalberg-Acton, not in the least children’s interest to subject them to these sociopathic animals.

There are some 2 to 4 deaths per day directly related Family court Australia, that goes unnoticed, we need a commission overseeing FCA.

Begs the question why LNP are funding feminist industries Australia 16Billion Pa?

We cant build families on Marxist socialist feminism or build a nation, as socialism fascism communism, only a free economy and true democracy, why are we allowing feminism to overrun or courts, public services and universities.

Why are the LNP allowing feminism to overrun or courts, public services and universities.

Please stop funding feminism.

Our Children, our families, our culture, our future under attack from within, organised crime graft profiting from crime and ambush psychological war against Australian Children and Families, antisocial socialist feminist treachery, bigotry and treasons under the Australian constitution we can not receive fair justice from this judiciary, FCA has been overrun by this foreign political violent power sociopathic pac, EMILY’s List is a political action committee (Super PAC) “More women in parliament, on corporate boards and in our courts“. Feminist or any other PAC’s have no place in the ‘Australian Commonwealth’ courts, by way of constitutional separation of power, it is treason. They exploit children and families in their ambitions of power to create a socialist feminist republic, money through children via the courts. “Early Money Is Like Yeast” (i.e., it raises dough), feminism is a KGB construct.

Why this is important

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) is Australia’s national security service, which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and terrorism, is not doing the job as it is mandated.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ―     Nelson Mandela

Your Name

http://fathersaustralia.com/

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE AS WELL

“I want it to be known – that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination – to gain justice…And we are not wrong. We are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong – the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong – God Almighty is wrong!…If we are wrong – justice is a lie.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Luke Batty Tragedy: We Need To Look Beyond AVO Laws

RIP Luke … Kids first … education is the only solution

You would be forgiven tonight if you are a separated mother in an unsettled broken relationship with your ex-husband, who may find it hard to sleep if your child is staying with their father.

This is the unfortunate implication of the tragic event yesterday where  eleven year old Luke Batty was killed by no less than his own father. But hopefully, reason would quickly prevail, especially when you realise that statistically speaking, 80% of all child killings occur at the hands of the mother (or due to her complicity).

Yes, its still very early on and perhaps we will all universally see this tragic event as a case involving mental health issues, that sadly could not have been foreseen much less prevented.

But I happen to think that much like the way the Arthur Freeman “girl over the bridge” child murder was portrayed by the media, that this case too, no matter what the mitigating circumstances were, will be portrayed as a case of domestic violence, the kind where only men are the perpetrators.

And how will the media suggest we could stop these tragedies from occurring again? Well I fear another case of even more punitive family law amendments, just like the 2011 family law amendments pushed through by Julia Gillard and her Attorney-General , Nicola Roxon, in the aftermath of the Arthur Freeman killing.

The kind of exploitation and abuse that such blanket laws can create, which would be clear to anyone who cares to think such discriminatory laws through, will of course not be challenged, so in the end a tragedy such as this will become nothing more than an opportunity to force through more ineffective laws that further discriminate against men, in the name of saving lives.

I would suggest that a more worthwhile exercise would be to look at why this man exploded, and why did he ended up killing the one human being he loved more than anything else in life.

If we are serious about saving lives, then blanket domestic violence laws that discriminate against people based on gender is not going to do it.

I would suggest that we need understand why this man felt so betrayed, so abandoned, so alone and so angry. This is clearly not a simple problem, and we are not going to solve it by doing more of the same. I would add as a case in point that the 2011 family law amendments did not protect this child, so maybe we have to start from scratch and start to genuinely look at prevention, and not add more fuel to the fire with more punitive laws.

Source 1

Source 2

Abuse a bigger danger in non-traditional families

SOCIAL progressives on both sides of politics may not like the message or the messenger, but Cory Bernardi had a point about the benefits of the traditional family.

Decades of social science data has shown that children, on average, do better in life on measures of health, education and social outcomes when raised in two-parent married families.

The risks to children associated with family breakdown disprove the fashionable idea that marriage, divorce, and sole parenting don’t matter for children.

The importance of marriage to children’s wellbeing is especially relevant to one of the most important child welfare issues facing the nation – child sexual abuse.

The vast majority of child sexual abuse occurs within the family setting. However, the fact that in 70-80 per cent of cases the perpetrator is found to have a “familial relationship” with the abused child obscures a more significant truth.

Numerous studies have found that children who do not live with both biological parents, irrespective of socio-economic status, are far more likely to be sexually abused than their peers in traditional families. Girls living in non-traditional families are found to have been sexually abused by their “stepfathers”, either the married, cohabiting, or casual partner of a divorced or single mother, at many times the rate that girls are sexually abused by their biological fathers in traditional families.

The 2010 US Fourth National Incidence Study of Abuse and Neglect found that compared to peers living in married two-biological-parent families, children living with a single parent who had a partner in the home were 20 times more likely to be sexually abused. Children living with a single parent with no cohabiting partner, and children living in a stepfamily (with married biological and non-biological parents), were five times and between eight and nine times more likely to be sexually abused, respectively.

Step and single-parent families accounted for only one-third of all children in the US (33 per cent) but accounted for more than two-thirds (66.8 per cent) of all children who experienced child sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse statistics in Australia are far less comprehensive and meaningful. Data publicly available here does not provide specific information about family structure, the identity of the perpetrator, and their relationship with the abused child.

This is symptomatic of the deeper silences in the national conversation about child sexual abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been widely applauded for finally “breaking the silence” surrounding child sexual abuse.

The commission’s inquiry into the ways that churches, schools and other institutions have mishandled child sexual abuse is crucial. However, we should still question the extent to which the commission’s findings will ensure children are better protected from sexual abuse in the future when the well-established but under-publicised links between family structure and child sexual abuse are not being investigated.

When the Australian Christian Lobby released a major report on child welfare in 2011 detailing the evidence demonstrating that family breakdown is a major risk factor for child sexual abuse, the facts were neither disputed nor acknowledged in the little public discussion that ensued. They simply washed in and out of the public domain and left no trace on community attitudes.

The issues are not fully and frankly discussed in this country because the public discourse is self-censored, in effect, by politicians, academics, social service organisations, and the media in compliance with politically correct attitudes towards “family diversity”, the socially “progressive” and “non-judgmental” fiction that says the traditional family is just one among many, and equally worthy, family forms.

In hindsight, we are justifiably critical of the silences that in earlier times kept child sexual abuse a hidden problem. Yet a comparable silence exists today.

Greater community awareness is needed of the potentially harmful impact the relationship and reproductive choices of adults can have on children. This could be achieved by a government-commissioned, anti-child sexual abuse public information campaign. The campaign should emphasise that the traditional family is a protective factor that prevents child sexual abuse. It should also publicise how divorce and single-parenthood increases the risk of sexual abuse for the more than one in four Australian children who do not live with both biological parents.

This is not as radical as it sounds. In New York and Chicago, public information campaigns are encouraging marriage before having children and discouraging teen pregnancy. Barack Obama has also endorsed the need for “strong stable families” to reduce poverty in America.

Australian governments already conduct advertising campaigns such as anti-smoking and anti-drink driving campaigns to educate citizens, promote certain values, and change attitudes and behaviours. A public information campaign that advertised the risks to children posed by family breakdown would end the new silence that hides the culturally unfashionable truth.

Jeremy Sammut is a research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies. His report, The New Silence: Family Breakdown and Child Sexual Abuse, is released today.