National Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy

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hello everyone and thank you for joining

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me for the launch of the national

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children's mental health strategy

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2021

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firstly i'd like to acknowledge the

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traditional owners on all the lands on

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which we're meeting today and

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pay my respects to their elders past

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present and emerging

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i'm very happy to be living here on

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wajak nang abuja in perth in western

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australia

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and i'm grateful that this country has

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been so well looked after that i get to

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live here and raise my children

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so this is me i'm from the pilbara

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region in western australia although i

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grew up in perth

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but my homelands are in the pilbara

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region around marble bar and i'm a pelco

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woman

Generational Stories

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and of course knowing who you are and

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where you come from is really important

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to mental health and so are our

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generational stories of our families so

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this is my grandmother and mom and

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this is me with my first child and i

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think that the foundations to our mental

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health actually start here with our

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families so as my grandmother holds my

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mum my mum holds me and i hold my first

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child and this is establishing good

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mental health and wellbeing and

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resilience throughout the generations

Why Focus on Children

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so why is it important to focus on

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infant and children in particular and

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i'm really pleased that the government

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decided to do a 0-12 strategy

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because this is a an area of focus that

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hasn't received a lot of attention in

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recent years

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at this point i also just want to thank

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everyone who's been involved in the

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development of the strategy

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it was a lot of hard work for everyone

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involved and i think that they've done a

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really fantastic job

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so why focus on on children well we know

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and the science is in fact very clear

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that the early years offer both the

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greatest opportunity for development but

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also present a time of considerable risk

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so things really can and do go wrong in

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early childhood and this sets kids on a

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path for poor mental health and

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well-being down the track often not

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manifest until

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the

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youth period or in adulthood but the

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origins of this distress

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actually start in childhood

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so this is a time that we have to focus

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on really building our mental health and

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well-being and our resilience

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if we're going to actually have

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healthy development later on down the

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track

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so we need to focus on building sturdy

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brains through nurturing relationships

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through good experiences that promote

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growth and development through healthy

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environments and through really

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promoting those strong social and

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emotional developing mental milestones

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which are actually critical for our

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development later

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and of course if we do all of that then

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this will establish the foundations for

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well-being and resilience throughout our

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lifespan and if by chance adversity does

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uh we do face adversity later on down

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the track we will be much more able to

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handle these sorts of issues if we've

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got these really strong foundations

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so some of the considerations that we

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also have to think about when we're

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looking at mental health and well-being

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is that most of our mental health

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challenges or disorders actually have

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their origins somewhere in childhood

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sometimes in infancy or in a very early

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childhood most disorders don't really

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just start up in adolescence there are

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some of course that do but for many some

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of their origins or risk factors are

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present early on we also know that there

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are many risk and protective factors

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that we we know about we know how to

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deal with them we know what

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some of the things that will promote the

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protective factors and also some of the

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things that we can do to try and reduce

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risk and we can identify some of this

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within our population

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there's an increasing evidence base for

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really effective interventions from

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infancy right through to adulthood that

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will support healthy development and

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also promote healing and recovery

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and of course if you intervene early

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when the brain is more malleable before

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things have become permanent in terms of

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changes to brain development and

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structure and function

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then this is much easier to intervene at

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this stage so the earlier we intervene

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in life the earlier we intervene into

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stress and in the onset of illness

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the chances for better recovery

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are much much greater so the cost

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benefit for early intervention is

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compelling a small amount of investment

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in childhood to get kids back on track

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is going to yield much better outcomes

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than trying to intervene

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much later down the track when things

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may have caused permanent changes to the

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brain or become entrenched and more

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difficult to shift

Concerns

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of course some of the concerns about the

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service system that have been around for

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some time now is that there has been a

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lack of development and investment in

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clinical services for children

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particularly the under 12s over many

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decades

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there are also very few specialised

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service services that can deal with some

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of the particular issues that develop in

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infants and in young children there are

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lots of gaps in our service system as

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well particularly for those children who

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may have some high risk groups such as

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children in out of home care as well as

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those children who find themselves in

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the juvenile justice system many of

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those children are really at risk for

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later mental health challenges if they

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don't have them already within the

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systems of care they find themselves in

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we also know there are large gaps in

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mental health services in rural and

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remote locations and certainly in some

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of our aboriginal

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communities that

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live in very remote circumstances

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we have currently a very poorly trained

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and fragmented service system we we have

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a lack of staff and development and

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support

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and of course what we've seen is a rapid

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rise in demand for mental health

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services for children and and young

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people in recent years and even more so

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in the covered years and this has far

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exceeded the services capacity to

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actually meet

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any sort of current levels of need

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so we've got a long way to go but

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hopefully this strategy will address

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some of these concerns by getting in

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early having a much stronger

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collaborative approach from primary care

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right through to the specialist service

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system

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and promote that sort of

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focus on children's mental health and

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well-being for everybody

Summary

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so just to leave you with something a

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little bit more positive we know that if

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we give children the best start the

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right start in life and development then

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they are going to grow into happy

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healthy adults

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and although we

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have many stories to tell wouldn't it be

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nice if we could tell the best story of

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all and that is we put in the investment

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that was required we built the systems

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of care that we needed and it didn't

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matter who you were or where you lived

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or who your family was

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every child got the chance to achieve

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the best possible well-being

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and that would be a great story to tell

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thank you

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[Music]

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my name is eileen and i'm five years old

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and

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[Music]

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when i feel sad i coloring when i feel

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happy

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i dance

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how do you know when your friend is

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feeling sad

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they just sit on the bench and stay

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there and watch everybody play

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and what do you do when you see that

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i just come to them and help them

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why do you want to help them

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because they're feeling sad like i feel

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sad every day and i know how that feels

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we need to focus on building sturdy

Building sturdy brains

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brains

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through nurturing relationships through

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good experiences that promote growth and

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development through healthy environments

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and through really promoting those

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strong social and emotional developing

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mental milestones which are actually

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critical for our development later

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and of course if we do all of that then

1:02

this will establish the foundations for

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well-being and resilience throughout our

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lifespan i think it's important to

Importance of education

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educate i guess parents and carers about

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mental health that way

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we are aware if things may arise and at

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the same time

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children exhibit

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different signs comparative to adults

Early childhood

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it's really important that early

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childhood educators and teachers as well

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as families and carers

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all of the adults involved in a child's

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life

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understand

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what good social and emotional

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development looks like what's healthy in

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early childhood

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and to also be alert

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to signs that children might be

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struggling or having difficulty

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in that with their mental health this is

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when we can intervene early

Early intervention

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if you intervene early when the brain is

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more malleable before things have become

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permanent in terms of changes to brain

1:56

development and structure and function

1:58

then this is much easier to intervene at

2:01

this stage so the earlier we intervene

2:03

in life the earlier we

2:05

intervene into stress and in the onset

2:07

of illness

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the chances for better recovery

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are much much greater

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practitioners both individuals and in

evaluative frameworks

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teams need to establish evaluative

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frameworks for client practice

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circumstances change practices come and

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go

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evaluations of how children are coping

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in different aspects of their lives

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is really outcome evaluation that

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enables practices to be adapted

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and evaluated on an ongoing basis

best start

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we know that if we give children the

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best start the right start in life and

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development then they are going to grow

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into happy healthy adults

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and although we

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have many stories to tell wouldn't it be

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nice if we could tell the best story of

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all and that is we put in the investment

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that was required we built the systems

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of care that we needed and it didn't

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matter who you were or where you lived

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or who your family was

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every child got the chance to achieve

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the best possible well-being it's been a

outro

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tough time for kids in this curve at 19

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lockdown

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but the world's changing we have family

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and friends to reunite us again

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you