Advancing Adolescent Health in the Asia Pacific

Introducing a monthly Seminar Series

Advancing Adolescent Health in the Asia Pacific: A virtual community to share knowledge and support collaboration

Adolescence is a critical developmental period where health determines developmental trajectories and outcomes during adolescence itself, into adulthood and into the next generation. More than half of the global population of adolescents lives in the Asia Pacific region. Yet globally, regionally and indeed locally in Australia, there are major unmet health needs, inadequate investments in responsive systems, and insufficient research and translation capacity in adolescent health.

Advancing Adolescent Health in the Asia Pacific: A virtual community to share knowledge and support collaboration is an opportunity to come together to share knowledge, showcase new findings and/or research methods with the overarching objective of helping to build capacity in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, to improve adolescent health and wellbeing.

This seminar series aims to provide researchers, policy makers, practitioners, implementers, young advocates – indeed anyone interested in the health and wellbeing of adolescents – opportunities to enhance their understanding of adolescent health and wellbeing, with a focus on research.

This monthly series is supported by the Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) for Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health. Funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the CRE is focused on defining the health needs of adolescents to deliver research that drives investment in neglected areas of adolescent health including mental health, non-communicable disease risk, injury and violence and substance use. Led by a team at the Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute it brings together leading Australian research groups including the University of Melbourne, Burnet Institute, University of New South Wales, University of South Australia, University of Queensland, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. These researchers have multiple relationships with academics, policy makers, clinicians and advocates across the Asia Pacific region. Learn more about the CRE here.

Register to join the seminar series here

Upcoming seminars

Moving beyond data gaps

13 Feb, 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT

In this session, Professor Pete Azzopardi will provide a broad overview of the state of primary data for adolescent health, highlighting key knowledge gaps and the implications this has had for policy and practice.

Past seminars with recordings

Anxiety and depression across adolescence

5 Dec, 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT

Amid growing concerns about a youth ‘mental health crisis,’ understanding of how common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, evolve across adolescence is crucial to inform contemporary responses. This seminar will present findings from the Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS), a Melbourne-based longitudinal cohort study.

How to CREYATE Partnerships in Research with Young People

7 Nov, 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT

Have you ever wondered about the journey of youth advocacy from inception to impact? In this session, we will delve into the essential phases of becoming a youth advocate, emphasizing the importance of collaboration with young people in research initiatives.

Building capacity for global adolescent health

4 July, 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEST

This workshop style session will discuss the need for high-quality, youth-informed research to help drive investment in global adolescent health and highlight some of the CRE’s goals for building capacity for youth involvement in research.

Adolescent injury burden and prevention

6 June, 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEST

This seminar will examine the work of the injury stream of the CRE to quantify the global burden of injury and interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents, uncover the evidence to support investment in effective interventions, as well as the gaps.

The Forgotten Girls

2 May, 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT

Dr Farnaz Sabet and Ms Suchitra Rath will speak about the state of evidence for adolescent maternal health care in the Asia Pacific region, and some of the reasons why pregnant girls have been excluded from the research and policy space.

Driving responsive actions for adolescent health

4 April, 1:00 pm AEDT

Adolescent health needs vary substantially across our region, but also within countries by age, gender, ethnicity, remoteness and other factors. For health actions to be responsive to need, we need good quality data that defines these needs.

Adolescent mental health in Indonesia and Vietnam

7 March, 1:00 pm AEDT

The National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (NAMHS) were nationally representative household surveys of mental disorders among adolescents aged 10-17 years in Kenya, Indonesia, and Vietnam. This session will focus on the why, how, and what of the NAMHS.

The Age of Adolescence

1 February, 1:00 pm AEDT

This session will provide the background of why adolescent health matters, describe the rationale for an expanded definition of adolescence, and provide the context for why adolescent health matters in our region.