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The following resources have been prepared by the array of health professionals who make up SMG Health. Browse the latest articles, download resources, watch videos or listen to podcasts here.
Staying connected with our wellbeing allows us to make better-informed decisions about our health. Sometimes, small yet instrumental changes are needed to tweak our everyday habits which assist in long term behavior change.
Below you can find further information on a variety of general health and wellbeing topics.
Gym memberships can be expensive and when life gets in the way, or our motivation dips, it can be too easy to skip class. Enter the DIY, budget-friendly home gym that you can create with minimal fuss but plenty of rewards – here, physical health experts show us how to create a budget-friendly alternative to the gym in our own home.
As time has gone on, society’s understanding of mental health issues has improved significantly. Staying mentally healthy at home and at work is just as important as the food you eat or the exercise you do.
Below you can find further information on some of the most common mental health topics.
When someone close to you talks about suicide, it can be deeply troubling and difficult to know how to respond.
Good nutrition is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. The food and drinks we consume provide us with the necessary nutrients to provide our body with energy and maintain our wellbeing.
Below you can find further information on good nutrition from the array of health professionals who make up SMG Health.
Along with a healthy diet, exercise and lifestyle choices, sleep is a very important piece of the wellness puzzle. What we eat can have both positive and negative effects on our sleep quality and quantity.
Instilling healthy habits into children at a young age helps set them up for a bright, happy, healthy future.
Furthermore, children aged 5-12 years old are recommended to do 60 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity per day.
Below you can find further information on how to help with healthy eating habits and physical activity for children.
I give my husband a hard time about his smartphone use around our toddler. Don’t get me wrong; he’s a great dad – one of the best. But that shiny, electronic little sucker has a knack for hogging his attention at the expense.
Getting active throughout the day is a core component of a healthy lifestyle, whether that be time at the gym, or simply taking the stairs at the train station.
Furthermore, getting a good night of sleep can be an understated source of good performance for your day-to-day activities.
Below you can find further information on some of the most popular physical health topics.
Whether you travel for work, have a busy schedule with your family, or have frequent disruptions to your daily routine, life can feel frenzied.
Our sleep habits and hygiene pay a crucial role in our physical and mental wellbeing. Learning and improving our sleep cycles, and the understanding the importance of good sleep hygiene can assist in improving our mood, memory, judgement, and productivity.
Below you can find further information on a variety of sleep and fatigue management resources.
If you have trouble sleeping, you’re not alone. On an average night, 33 to 45 percent of the population have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Even people who usually sleep well may have trouble when they’re under extra stress or away from home.
Our lifestyles are busier than ever before and, as an ageing population, it has never been more important to invest in our physical and mental health so that we can enjoy a healthy, happy life. Checking in with how you’re fuelling your body, booking in for key physical health check ups, making time and space in your life for you, and moving your body in enjoyable ways are all great ways we can give ourselves the best chance at health.
Below you can find some helpful resources and guidance on how to support your mind and body through life’s challenges.
Our lifestyles are busier than ever before and, as an ageing population, it has never been more important to invest in our physical and mental health so that we can enjoy a healthy, happy life. Checking in with how you’re fuelling your body, booking in for key physical health check ups, making time and space in your life for you, and moving your body in enjoyable ways are all great ways we can give ourselves the best chance at good health.
For optimal health and performance throughout life, it’s critical for men to prioritise health and nutrition needs.
Below you can find further information on men's health and self-care.
Health remains one of few areas in life where men have the odds stacked against them, but what exactly are the biggest issues facing Men's Health in Australia?
I give my husband a hard time about his smartphone use around our toddler. Don’t get me wrong; he’s a great dad – one of the best. But that shiny, electronic little sucker has a knack for hogging his attention at the expense, I feel, of quality time with our son.
Sure, that’s my assessment, but after a recent chat with a male colleague, I found that I wasn’t alone in my predicament ...
“My wife has her camera-phone always at the ready,” he said.
“If our son is laughing, she’s filming it. If he’s rolling in mud, she’s filming it. She never misses anything, except I feel like she misses it all.
“Rather than being present and enjoying the moment, she’s watching it through a screen,” he added.
He did, however, quickly admit to also being at fault: “Rather than being present while my son is bathing, I sit on the loo next to him and scroll through Instagram.”
Now’s probably the time to confess that I’m not an innocent party in this either.
During the first few months after our son’s birth, when I was breastfeeding into the night and wee hours of the morning, Facebook and WhatsApp kept me awake enough to function – not at an award-winning level, but enough to complete a passable nappy change.
So you see, I wouldn’t make a very good anti-smartphone campaigner, but I am in the boat that is questioning the relationships we (particularly parents) are building with these devices.
“More than screen-obsessed young children, we should be concerned about tuned-out parents.”
Those are the words of Erika Christakis, who penned an eloquent, yet alarming piece for The Atlantic on the “dangers of distracted parenting”.
In it, she wrote “we seem to have stumbled into the worst model of parenting imaginable – always present physically, thereby blocking children’s autonomy, yet only fitfully present emotionally” thanks to “the beeps and enticements of smartphones”.
“Distracted adults grow irritable when their phone use is interrupted; they not only miss emotional cues but actually misread them.”
US-based Psychologist Nicole Beurkens is all-too-familiar with the ill effects of parental preoccupation with smartphones, so much so that she has banned them in her clinic’s waiting room.
“My colleagues and I began to notice an increasing trend of parents in our waiting room who were consumed with their phones, and minimally responsive to their children,” she told me.
Alarmingly, Dr Beurkens says that research is starting to show us that kids are exhibiting more problematic behaviours the more their parents are engaging with digital devices.
Distracted parent, disrupted development?
It’s no secret that kids are sponges, but perhaps less obvious is how our tech habits may be shaping these sponges.
“The new parental-interaction style can interrupt an ancient emotional cueing system, whose hallmark is responsive communication, the basis of most human learning,” wrote Christakis.
Indeed, Dr Beurkens explains that “in their early months and years, children learn through the relationships and interactions they have with their parents and other key adults”.
“When these relationships and engagements are disrupted by parental distraction from technology, the child’s opportunity to learn is also disrupted.”
Dr Beurkens’ intention is not to paint a picture of a parent-child relationship in which the parent is forever at the beck and call of the child.
In fact, Christakis pointed out that parents have a long history of juggling: “Parents have always left kids to entertain themselves at times … lounging aimlessly in playpens.”
But she continued: “Occasional parental inattention is not catastrophic (and may even build resilience), but chronic distraction is another story.”
As Dr Beurkens puts it: “Children are better off having clear times when parents are unavailable to them, and then times when parents are fully present.”
Geeze, do parents ever get a break!?
Community Psychologist Lyn O’Grady says it’s important not to “demonise” parental smartphone use, particularly when the digital age is still relatively fresh.
“Adults are still learning to navigate this space … There’s a lot we’re still making sense of,” says Dr O’Grady, Manager of Strategic Development at the Australian Psychological Society.
When I asked her whether she thought parental preoccupation with smartphones was indeed “the worst model of parenting imaginable” as Christakis put it, Dr O’Grady replied: “We’ve got to be careful not to idealise the old days.”
“Parents in the past haven’t necessarily been aware of emotional connections with children or physically present … We don’t want to undermine how far we’ve come.”
She also says that smartphones can serve a positive purpose.
“We want parents to be informed [and] connected. Parents are people and need to have some entertainment and need to take care of themselves and relax.”
The reality is that smartphones are very much a part of our lives today, integral to most social and occupational settings.
So how do we strike up a healthy balance between smartphone use and honest parental engagement?
Finding that sweet spot
Both Dr Beurkens and Dr O’Grady agree that parents’ awareness of their own smartphone use is the key.
Dr Beurkens adds: “Parents should strive to ensure that at least some of their daily interactions and time spent with their children are device-free. Simple and essential starting points include meals, daily routines such as bath time or bedtime, and anytime they are talking at length with their child about something.”
“Even one period of quality interaction with a child without ‘technoference’ is better than none,” she says.
As for my husband, I questioned him the other day for using his smartphone while supervising our son’s bath time. He said our little one was happy playing and that he was planning some device-free story time afterwards.
Sounds fair to me.
