Health

Mental Health

THINK AGAINMedical

Early-onset dementia can requite resilience to confront this terminal condition. Illustration: Getty Images

Special courage is needed for dementia in your 50s

A doctor’s encounter with three dementia patients under 52 reveals the confronting reality of early-onset disease as Australia faces a looming healthcare crisis.

Associate Professor Rowena Mobbs

THINK AGAINMedical

Barry Otto’s daughter Gracie Otto on the Aussie acting legend’s life with Alzheimer’s disease dementia.

As Barry Otto fades, daughter Gracie keeps his story alive

Barry Otto is a champion of stage and screen, but dementia has taken away his voice. Now his daughter Gracie tells his story.

Fiona Harari

THINK AGAINMedical

Hamish MacDonald with his dad Iain. Picture: Supplied

Hamish Macdonald on why a dementia diagnosis isn’t the end of life

The Australian broadcaster reveals how his father’s diagnosis taught him that life and joy can continue long after the condition takes hold.

Sarah Sharples

THINK AGAINMedical

Electorates with biggest numbers of those living with dementia.

Mapped: Dementia crisis in Australia’s suburbs

A Sydney mother has broken cultural barriers to help hundreds of families understand and manage dementia. Search the number of people living with the disease in your area.

LILLIAN SALEH

LINK WITH OCDMental Health

My friend with the hoarder mother-in-law has been concerned about her welfare.

Inside the (troubled) minds of hoarders

It’s estimated that 2.5 per cent of Americans are hoarders – which would mean that in Australia the number of hoarders is almost as large as the population of the Gold Coast.

Matthew Condon

THINK AGAINMedical

Dementia Feature. Anthea Rowan and her mother, Lala Stephen, in 2007. Picture: Supplied

The early warning signs I missed in Mum’s decade-long Alzheimer’s battle

Eight years before Alzheimer’s claimed Anthea Rowan’s mother’s life, a simple clock-drawing test held clues to the devastating storm brewing silently in her brain.

ANTHEA ROWAN

THINK AGAINMedical

Thorburn family have rare child dementia disorder L2 Hydroxy Glutaric Aciduria.

Meet the Thorburns: the family taking all the world can throw at them

Parents of the world’s youngest diagnosed cases of a rare childhood dementia are fighting for a national support unit to help other families navigate the complex medical system.

Annette Sharp

THINK AGAINMedical

Childhood Dementia Initiative CEO Megan Maack with children Isla and Jude. Picture: Supplied

The silent killer that affects one baby every three days

Half of the babies born with a condition causing childhood dementia won’t live to age 10, as experts push for an urgent national response.

Lillian Saleh

THINK AGAINMental Health

Jonathan Brown has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

The appointment you need to make today

There’s a service available that could help Australians catch the nation’s biggest killer in its tracks, but hardly any of us are using it.

Lillian Saleh and Sarah Sharples

THINK AGAINMedical

Couple sitting on bed in sunlight dementia

‘Senior moments’ or something more sinister? A doctor’s guide to facing dementia

Our GP columnist offers her guidance on treating the mental and physical health of a patient with dementia and what steps you can take right now.

Magdalena Simonis

THINK AGAINMedical

15 September 2025; Stylised brain graphic featuring the Think Again campaigns' signature orange and purple colour palette. 4x3

Take the test to assess your risk of dementia now

An Australian-developed test can score your dementia risk profile in minutes and give you a free report with recommendations for change.

BEK DAY

measuring what mattersNation

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - August 12, 2025: Federal Treasurer Jim ChalmersÃÂ holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Wellbeing budget relying on old data

The federal government’s latest update to its long-awaited ‘wellbeing budget’ shows it is relying on data up to four years old.

Lily McCaffrey

THINK AGAINMedical

Singer-songwriter and former Hunters & Collectors frontman Mark Seymour who performed his song, Classrooms and Kitchens, for The Australian. Aaron Francis / The Australian

Song, prayer, blackberries: singer Mark Seymour’s emotional tribute to mum Paula

The cruel reality of Alzheimer’s disease forced Hunters and Collectors’ Mark Seymour to confront his past, leading to an unexpected discovery in his mother Paula’s final years | WATCH THE PERFORMANCE

MARK SEYMOUR

Medical

It’s just as important to exercise our brains, as it is our bodies, leading dementia researcher Professor Kaarin Anstey said.

Play the game that could save your brain

A leading dementia expert reveals why doing activities you’re bad at or completing puzzles could help you to keep your brain healthy as you age.

Lillian Saleh

THINK AGAINMedical

12 September 2025; A photo of Louise Bryant and her partner Craig 'Moose' Moore on the black background. Sources: Supplied. Artwork by Frank Ling. Ratio 16:9. For DIGITAL or PRINT.

‘We fell in love, and then he began to disappear’

Their romance began at a beach swimming club, but now Louise Bryant shares what happened when dementia stole her 56-year-old partner’s brilliant mind.

LOUISE BRYANT

THINK AGAINMental Health

5/9/25: Professor Henry Brodaty (Psychiatrist) for our Dementia Series. John Feder/The Australian.

Dementia: the three stubborn myths we can change

Australia stands at a turning point in fighting dementia as breakthrough treatments emerge, but urgent action is needed to prevent a looming healthcare crisis.

Professor Henry Brodaty

THINK AGAINMedical

Medical experts studies the EEG condition of the patient

14 ways to fend off Australia’s biggest killer

It used to be thought that a dementia diagnosis was down to bad luck, but a number of changes, some you can start today, could prevent hundreds of thousands of cases.

Bek Day

BOOK EXTRACTMedical

Bruce Willis and Emma Heming Willis in a picture of the couple on their 12th anniversary in 2021, two years before Willis’s dementia diagnosis was made public. Picture: Instagram / emmahemingwillis

Bruce Willis’s wife tells how he was diagnosed with dementia

As the wife of the Hollywood hero, Emma Heming Willis is now also Bruce Willis’ care partner. In this extract from her new book, Emma describes how it turned their world upside down and yet also gave direction.

EMMA HEMING WILLIS

THINK AGAINMental Health

Rachel Grahame, 81, who suffered from dementia, was handcuffed by police in 2020.

This is what goes wrong when police are called to dementia cases

Experts say police should be called only as a last resort when dementia patients are deemed to be aggressive. So who should be called to help?

Fiona Harari

Moose and meMental Health

7/8/25: Louise Bryant' and her partner Craig

The next heartbreaking chapter in a dementia tragedy

Police are often the last line of help when dementia patients are deemed ‘uncontrollable’. Can they help? This is what happened to Craig Moore, who has early onset dementia, 10 months after he was profiled in The Australian.

Fiona Harari

THINK AGAIN CAMPAIGNMedical

Thursday 11th September 2025. The Australian. Karen Dymke has a rare type of early onset dementia called primary progressive aphasia and woud like to see more investment in dementa treatment and prevention. Photograph by Arsineh Houspian.

Dementia surges as nation’s biggest killer

Dementia for the first time has overtaken heart disease as Australia’s leading cause of death. Advocates are now calling for a national campaign to raise awareness of the disease and how to lower individual risk.

Natasha Robinson

RESEARCHMental Health

Schizophrenia, Professor Ed Bullore says, is probably the product of an interaction between the brain and the immune system. Illustration: Getty Images/The Australian

Acclaimed psychiatrist pinpoints childhood illness as schizophrenia trigger

The psychiatrist Ed Bullmore believes our immune system could hold the key to one of medicine’s most misunderstood mental illnesses.

HELEN RUMBELOW

THE HAPPINESS PROJECTwellbeing

31/07/2025 Billy Garvey pictured with his kids Yvie (4) and Charlie (2). He is a developmental & behavioural paediatrician and an expert in childhood resilience and happiness. He runs a popular podcast and training modules about supporting younger people Aaron Francis / The Australian

In a high-pressure world, what makes kids happy?

The lessons we learn in childhood can shape the adults we become. So how do we ensure kids are content and well rounded? We ask the professionals.

Penny Timms

LONGEVITYwellbeing

Pessimism is focusing on the more negative aspects of a situation and anticipating problems. Picture: Getty Images/The Australian

A happiness expert’s tips on how to stop being a pessimist

The psychologist Kate Oliver tells Anna Maxted why optimism is best for health and longevity.

ANNA MAXTED

HealthThe Wall Street Journal

Bestselling memoirist Suleika Jaouad hosted a journaling club at her Brooklyn brownstone this summer. The journaling club’s first prompt asked attendees including Lucy Liu and Hank Willis Thomas to draw giraffes with their eyes closed.Photography by Ryan Duffin for WSJ. Magazine

Journalling pens a path to mental peace

Best-selling American memoirist Suleika Jaouad is teaching her friends to meet and write together about their lives as a means of connection instead of as only a private practice.

Lauren Mechling

Mental healthMental Health

Leesa Mountford and her son Josh Clarke., Josh died by suicide age 25 and Leesa now runs a community support service I Got You.

More Australians are asking for help in times of distress

The number of Australians thinking about or planning suicide is falling, particularly men, but demand for support services is rising fast. What’s going on?

Stephen Lunn

EXCLUSIVEHealth

28 August 2025; a photocomp of MrBeast, Matthew Hussey, Joe Rogan, Emma Watson and Leo DiCaprio with a grey background. Artwork by Emilia Tortorella. Sources: supplied, Instagram, Filmgrab and iStock. Ratio 4:3.

MrBeast, dating coaches and gaming: how your teenage boy spends his day

It’s no secret teen boys are all over gaming and social media. But here’s what you may not know.

Stephen Lunn

exclusiveNation

9/6/2023 : Jillian Spencer at home in Cannon Hill , Brisbane. Jillian Spencer is a psychiatrist at the Queensland Children's Hospital who has challenged gender affirming care for gender questioning young people. (NB. Pls check with Natasha Robinson re. captioning for publication) pic: NO BYLINE

Journal slammed over trans paper ban

A leading medical journal has refused to publish a paper by psychiatrists who want psychiatry’s governing body to ‘acknowledge its culpability’ in gender affirming medical care.

Stephen Rice

ProstheticsMedical

15/8/25: Ocularist Kerri Wilson handcrafts prosthetic eyes for children with congenital illnesses and other people who happen to lose an eye. John Feder/The Australian.

‘They look in that mirror and cry’: the art and science of new eyes

Ocularists provide a niche but essential service to those in need of an artificial eye, but with some considering their retirement, the field is in need of a new generation.

James Dowling

ANGER AT INACTIONMental Health

Elizabeth Young, left, who lost her daughter, right, Jade, in the 2024 Bondi Junction stabbing attack, has campaigned, including at federal parliament, to improve services for mental health. Pictures:

A mother’s cry: after 500 days, grief remains, the world moves on

Elizabeth Young’s daughter, Jade, was murdered with five others in the Bondi Junction stabbing attack. Her grief remains visceral. And she has lost trust in society’s foundational systems as she struggles with the impact on her family’s mental health.

ELIZABETH YOUNG

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/health/mental-health/page/3