By Domanii Cameron

Workplace flexibility may be the key in  helping youths find employment, particularly students.

Following the Federal Government’s decision to cut youth welfare in the 2014-2015 Budget, workplaces are being urged to consider students and prospective employees when it comes to designating hours.

The Federal Government is planning to cut welfare to the unemployed under the age of 29 unless exempted, resulting in nossible  income losses of up to $255 per week.

Member for Parliament from the Division of Leichhardt in Queensland, Warren Entsch says young people are feeling the grunt when businesses cannot afford to pay penalty rates.

“The fact that you’ve got to be under 18 to get junior rates makes it very difficult and that’s wrong,” Mr Entsch says.

“We need to be allowed to let our young people work.”

Governments must allow businesses to have a more flexible roster to accommodate for youths who are unable to work regular hours.

“Now we’re not talking exploitation but just extended hours so they can work and earn,” he says.

“This is something we need to address if we’re going to do this properly.”

Mr Entsch says pushing young people into work or study will help them out of the welfare system.

“We did make a commitment where we would be trying to get people off welfare and into the workforce or study,” he says.

“Young people will be paid $2500 if they are able to find a job and hold it down for 12 months.

“That’s a good incentive.

“And we’ll be giving a further $2000 if they can hold the job down for another 12 months.”

Youths to feel full effect of new budget. PHOTO CREDIT: Google Images

For youths who need to relocate to find work, welfare will also be available.

“About $40 million has been targeted to programs that will offer support for job seekers who need to relocate,” Mr Entsch says.

“Up to $6000 will be available to those we have to relocate from a regional area and $3000 if they need to relocate to a metropolitan area from a regional area.

“If they have a family, then there will be another opportunity to get a further $3000 on top of that.”

“We’re gong to make it a bit tougher for you to get access to the doll or whatever but we’re going to make an incentive so that you actually get out there and do something else if it means picking fruit or dairy.”

Australian Council of Social Services Media Advisor Fernando de Freitas says young people are already subject to tough requirements and that the new budget will not help.

“Perhaps the harshest measure [of the Budget] is the new rules to deny income support to young people,” Fernando says.

“Young people are already subject to tough requirements to get assistance.

“For instance, people under 22 years who leave school early are already required to complete school or train, or they lose income support.

“Those over 21 are required to search for 10 jobs a fortnight and prove it to Centrelink or they risk a loss of payments for eight weeks.”

De Freitas says to assist youths, the focus should be on opening up job opportunities.

“This should be done in collaboration with business leaders, investors, local communities, and social services to give young people hope, and help them get a foot in the door,” he says.

An effective way to address long-term unemployment would be to recognise skills and capability related barriers.

“A first step would be to increase the availability of places in cost-effective wage subsidy programs such as Wage Connect, and Youth Connections, providing a subsidy roughly equivalent to the Newstart Allowance to a real employer, and mentoring and sustained supports,” he says.

“This gives young people the work experience they desperately want.”

Queensland Youth Services CEO Wendy Lang says the cuts will make youth unemployment worse.

“I think the best way to deal with high rate of youth unemployment is to introduce more traineeships and apprenticeships or other aspects which can give young people more of an opportunity to get experience,” Lang  says.

“Unless they can get work experience and be exposed to a work environment, how are they going to decide on a training course that is actually going down the path that they want to take.”

For more information on how the Budget will affect you, click here.

Cyber Bullying is still a problem especially among young adults.

By Domanii Cameron

Despite the vast technological advancements that society experiences, cyber bullying should not be considered inescapable if children are educated appropriately.

Cyber bullying continues to affect both children and adults daily through various means of online communication.

Mackay Crime Prevention Unit officer Sergeant Nigel Dalton says education is a key element in helping to decrease the frequency of cyber-bullying.

“Bullying has been around but the fact that we can now have it 24/7 on our phones or computers means that it’s more constant in a more direct way, where as before you had to catch up with someone face to face.

“It’s about learning how to communicate with each other again,” he says.

Legislation surrounding cyber-bullying should not be kept separate for children and adults.

“If we divide things up too much, then it becomes something like ‘he was nearly out of that age group; he was nearly an adult’ and vice versa and it all gets messy.

“It’s a really grey area,” Sargeant Dalton says .

“It has to be backed up with a huge amount of education.”

Cyber bullying does not have to exist. PHOTO CREDIT: Social Media Marketing

CEO of Queensland Youth Services Wendy Lang however, says that laws should be kept separate.

“A child can probably and innocently break the law and when I say innocently, I mean they don’t realise the consequences,” she says.

Lang says compared to a child,  an adult should be aware of what they are doing.

“A young person is likely to write emotional comments using the technology without understanding the consequences of writing those comments,” she says.

“I don’t think someone whose maturity levels who aren’t as quite as developed as an adult’s quite understand the repercussions of their actions.”

James Cook University tutor and PhD candidate Kerryn Brack says there is concern that children do not realise what they are doing.

“Children don’t understand the consequences of it [cyber-bullying],” Brack says.

“I think the laws that need to be brought in, need to be focused on educating not just punishing.”

Brack is writing her PhD on cyber bullying and is currently conducting a survey for it.

She says that programs being adopted overseas could work in Australia.

“There was chat, sort of in Australia, but mostly overseas that looked at bringing in programs in schools where children actually set up and decide what is appropriate and what isn’t,” Brack says.

“It has the dual affect of educating them; what they think is wrong and what’s not acceptable and letting them feel that they have control over it and that they can help stop and prevent it.

“Having children involved when trying to look at preventative measures is a really important thing,” she says.

There isn’t one form of technology that cyber-bullying is worse in.

“Every study finds a different type of technology that is worse,” Brack says.

“I guess it depends on which technology is more popular.

“When they first started doing research, things like Facebook weren’t very popular; emails were but now they’ve found that chat rooms and things like Facebook are the worst.”

Brack says cyber-bullying is being reported more frequently.

“Research shows that numbers have slowly increased,” she says.

“It could just be that people are reporting it and recognising it but either way there is more awareness.”

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If you are or have been a victim of cyber-bullying, there is help available through Lifeline on 13 11 14.

JCU medicine students get hands-on experience treating members of the community at Vincent State School’s Free Community Health Project.

By Adrienne Curry

Last year, JCU medicine tutor Dr Nicole Mohajer, Vincent State School principal Christie Schmid and Australian charity The Smith Family joined forces to create the Free Community Health Project available for students and families at Vincent State School.

The project commenced earlier this year.

The Free Community Health Project aims to assist children establish developing healthy eating patterns and providing James Cook University medicine students the chance to gain experience in educating primary school children.

Dr Mohajer decided the project would be a good opportunity for fifth year medicine students in their General Practitioner (GP) term to exercise what they had learned at university and in placement.

“All GPs are expected to address obesity and dietary choices and to be able to work with their patients in managing lifestyle risks,” Dr Mohajer said.

“The fifth years spend most of their time in the hospital or GP clinic,” she said.

“This gives them an opportunity to also experience the wider community.”

The medical students practice dealing with children in a general practitioner’s position and teaching Vincent State School students healthy lifestyle habits.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES: Students learn healthy habits

The work includes making medical observations and measurements, documenting blood pressure and explaining recipes and health tips.

Dr Mohajer said this opportunity was a beneficial medical platform for JCU medicine students to interact face-to-face with patients.

“On the most basic level, they learn to interact with and explain difficult concepts to primary children.

“They also become aware of the social and cultural issues that affect families from lower socio-economic backgrounds – it will help them when they have patients in the future who may not stick to medical advice because of some of these reasons,” she said.

“Most importantly, it builds engagement and attachment to the community that the medical students are living in.”

Dr Mohajer said Vincent was chosen for its “poor health and development indices”. The project is available to everyone but has a high focus on indigenous health.

IN PRACTICE: JCU Medicine students interacting with kids at Vincent State School

“Everyone is well aware of the huge gaps in lifespan and the large burden chronic disease plays in the indigenous community,” Dr Mohajer said.

“The literature implies some of the reasons for this are fear of the medical profession, not understanding what doctors are talking about, access to clinics, no car, no time, no money or other things to do, and a lack of access to healthy foods.

“Many families have so many pressures on them – overcrowding, poverty, social and health issues, that the minor health complaints of children get neglected.

“We want to bridge the gap between families and the health profession,” she said.

Dr Mohajer said she was confident in the project and had expansion plans.

“There’s a lot of demand for this program in other schools and next year we are considering expanding the number of schools and involving other health profession students.”

She said she believed teaching children to be healthy was one of the most important aspects of life.

“Making healthy choices cheap, fun and easy is so important.”

Vincent State School principal Christie Schmid said the project was aimed at educating the students about healthy lifestyle choices.

“The broad aim of the project is to improve the health and wellbeing of our community as well as to facilitate access to health services,” she said.

“We aim for students and families to have more timely access to health services.”

The Smith Family charity focuses on working with children up to 12 years old in West Townsville.

Free check-ups with JCU medicine students are available until October 31 at Vincent State School every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 4pm.