Johnny Shannon, motivational speaker of the year 2020  joins us on The Fathering First podcast. 

The last few years have been incredibly tough for everyone and it's no surprise that many individual's mental health has suffered because of it. 

In this podcast we sit down with Dr Mark Deady from the Black Dog Institute to discuss mental health post-COVID, what some of the research says and strategies we can use to help ourselves, children and loved ones move forward.  

Joined by special guest, The Hon. Dr Tony Buti, the West Australian minister for finance, lands, sport and recreation, citizenship and multicultural interests. 

In this episode, Minister Buti opens up about his fathering journey of raising three children, and how it's shaped him into the father he's become today. 

He discusses his family's journey to-date, being an advocate for his daughter who has cri du chat syndrome, and delves into some detail about his new book 'Alkira'; both a story of the love between mother and daughter and father and daughter, as well as her struggle to reach developmental milestones and ‘fit in'. 

In this week's episode we speak with speech pathologist, Annie Hamilton. Annie works with families and children aged 0-3 years and specialises in working with children to develop early communication skills. 

We discuss the importance of early intervention to support children who may be experiencing challenges with their language development and social communication.

In this week's episode we speak with James Brown, who is a registered Clinical Psychologist and has been working with families for over 15 years. He has a particular interest in assisting men relating to their psychological health and well-being. 

Our discussion today will be about fathers of children with additional needs, and managing and looking after their own mental health and wellbeing, so they can be the best dads they can be for their child. 

We speak with human performance researcher, speaker and consultant, Dr Adam Fraser. 

Adam studies how organisations can adopt a high-performance culture to thrive in this challenging and evolving business landscape. 

Adam helps us unpack the notion of finding a work life balance, providing strategies and advice, so fathers can be the best version of themselves in and out of the home. 

In this episode we speak with clinical psychologist Jeroen Decates. He has over 45 years experience working with both children and adults on the autism spectrum. 

He gives us an expert insight into this complex topic and provides parents with some advice and strategies around raising children with a disability, and specifically on the autism spectrum. 

Relationship and family mediator, Lisanne Iriks, provides her expert insight into relationship mediation and conflict resolution. During this podcast she provides some tips, strategies and advice for fathers around communication, what to do and what not to do in high conflict situations, and how to best move forward without getting the kids negatively caught up. 

The Fathering Project are thrilled to be joined by TV personality, social media sensation and picture book author, Jimmy Rees. 

He was the star on the ABC children's show Giggle and Hoot, and became well known for his hilariously relatable viral videos on social media. 

We chat to Jimmy about the challenges of 2020, which also brought about silver linings. His new book Bedtime Sorted! and being a husband and dad to three boys. 

Paul Dillon from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia joins us on this episode to talk all things drugs, alcohol and vaping. 

Paul has been working in the area of drug education for the past 25 years and has been contracted by many organisations to give regular updates on current drug trends. He has also worked with many school communities to ensure that they have access to good quality information and best practice drug education. 

This podcast covers: 

• Just how dangerous is vaping 2:51 – 7:08
• New trends and how teens are accessing drugs – 7:10 – 11:54
• Strategies to talk about drugs and alcohol with your teen 11:56 – 17:15 
• Teen parties 17:15 – 22:27
• Misuse of pharmaceutical drugs 21:23 – 24:28
• Signs your teen might be using drugs or alcohol 25:20 – 27:42 
• Biggest mistakes parents and teachers make talking about risky behaviours 28:07 – 30:57