Editor's note

As Australia’s newsrooms hollow out, we’re losing specialist journalists with the expertise to help us understand health and science. But at the same time, we’re bombarded with simplistic stories about new studies and trends we’re told will be game-changers for our health. So how do you know when a health story is worth clicking on?

We’re all drawn to content that impacts on our lives and, at The Conversation, we want to bring you information to help you make informed decisions about your health, whether it’s getting a better night’s sleep, avoiding weight gain, or dealing with your kids’ tantrums.

This is why we trawl through the world’s best journals and pluck out the most compelling new research. We commission Australia’s best minds to explain what the evidence says in a simple and compelling way.

We also bring you stories about seemingly intractable health problems, and the best thinking on how to address them. We’ll keep bringing you coverage about important issues like suicide in Indigenous communities, neglect in aged care, and the threat of antimicrobial resistance in the Pacific.

This year, The Conversation’s health desk has brought you 519 articles, from 703 Australian academics and they’ve been read 43 million times. If you value what we do, please make a donation so we can keep providing free and accurate health information to those who need it most.

Fron Jackson-Webb

Deputy Editor/Senior Health + Medicine Editor

Top story

A history of dispossession and transgenerational trauma underlie the day-to-day struggles of Indigenous people. from shutterstock.com

It’s despair, not depression, that’s responsible for Indigenous suicide

Tim Carey, Flinders University

A diagnosis of mental illness is only one in a number of risk factors for suicide. And for Indigenous Australians, a history of dispossession and disempowerment plays a much bigger role.

Environment + Energy

Politics + Society

Health + Medicine

Education

Science + Technology

Business + Economy

Cities

Arts + Culture

  • Australia’s problem with Aboriginal World Heritage

    Ian Lilley, The University of Queensland; Celmara Pocock, University of Southern Queensland

    Of 19 World Heritage sites across the country, only two, Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta, recognise the values of "living" Aboriginal culture. None of Australia's three sites inscribed purely for cultural values recognises Aboriginal people.

  • Friday essay: back to Moore River and finding family

    Aileen Marwung Walsh, Australian National University

    Aileen Marwung Walsh's grandparents were sent to the Moore River Native Settlement, of Rabbit Proof Fence infamy, half a century ago. In 2018, 100 years after the settlement's founding, she returned.

FactCheck

 

Featured jobs

Administration Officer (Staffing Services)

La Trobe University — Melbourne, Victoria

Lecturer Design And Technologies Education

Griffith University — Bundall, Queensland

Research Associate Bioinformatics Officer

University of Western Australia — Perth, Western Australia

Technical Officer Lab Chemistry

RMIT University — Melbourne, Victoria

More Jobs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Contact us here to list your job, or here to list your event.

For sponsorship opportunities, email us here