Child Development, Behaviour and Mental Health

Friday 9 May 12:00pm-1:30pm

This webinar will address some of the challenges children face that affect their ability to thrive in school, including learning difficulties, mental health concerns, social-emotional struggles, and family dynamics. 

Our speakers will discuss their shared approach to assessing and advocating for school-age children with complex developmental and psycho-social needs.

Speakers
Sophie Morris is an educational and developmental psychologist and Gehan Roberts is a developmental paediatrician. 

Friday 27 June 12:00pm-1:30pm

Mental health, just like physical health, is integral to children’s overall development. With the rising incidence of mental health difficulties, various services outside of the traditional mental health system are responding to children's mental health needs as an essential component of overall healthcare. 
 
To respond to this, Emerging Minds, a national child mental health organisation, has collaborated with numerous organisations, researchers, practitioners, and families to develop guidance on how different services can integrate responses to address the mental health needs of infants, children, and families.
 
This workshop will provide participants with guidance, resources, and practice examples that showcase opportunities to strengthen the integration of comprehensive mental health support into their work with infants, children and their families. 

Speaker 
Brad Morgan is the Director of Emerging Minds.

Friday 1 August 12:00pm-1:30pm

Relational practice focuses on providing services through the development and maintenance of warm and responsive relationships.

This webinar will examine the practical strategies required to navigate parental disagreements, support diverse family needs, and advocate for child-centred approaches, ultimately enhancing both educational and mental health outcomes for children.

Speaker: Shari Stewart is the Manager of Education and Learning for the Systems Impact team at the Centre for Community Child Health.

Friday 10 October 12:00pm-1:30pm

Tailored support can help children with neurodiversity at school and in the community to thrive in social and school settings.

This webinar will provide evidence-based, practical strategies for professionals working with children with neurodiversity, including those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and other neurodevelopmental differences.  

Speaker 
Deb Marks is a paediatrician at the The Royal Children’s Hospital.

Friday 21 November 9:00am-10:30am

This session will cover evidence and ideas for pharmacological management of emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Friday 21 November 10:45am-12:15pm

This session equips practitioners with evidence-based techniques to support healthy sleep habits. Providing   practical tools will help guide parents and enhance infant wellbeing. 

Speaker 
Karen McLean is a paediatrician at the The Royal Children’s Hospital.

Friday 28 November 9:00am-10:30am

This session delves into the impact of trauma on child mental health and provides management strategies for practitioners.

Speakers
Dr Allison Cox is the Director of Berry Street Take Two, and Dr Lyn Radford is the Senior Clinical Manager at Berry Street Take Two.

Friday 28 November 10:45am-12:15pm

This session will provide practitioners with evidence-based, practical strategies to help children challenged by social skills.

Speaker
Dr Bronwyn Carrigg

Dr Billy Garvey is a developmental paediatrician with over 20 years’ experience working with children. He is a developmental paediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital, where he sees families, trains clinicians and other professionals working with children and conducts research in child development and mental health. Following his Churchill Fellowship he founded Guiding Growing Minds, a social enterprise that aims to give all children the opportunity to reach their potential and live rich and meaningful lives. The Pop Culture Parenting podcast is a part of this vision. He has also written a book called Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child’s Mental Health.

Shari Stewart is the Manager of Education and Learning for the Systems Impact team at the Centre for Community Child Health. She is committed to enhancing the lived experiences of both adults and children through the design and delivery of engaging, interactive learning experiences. Passionate about building relationships, Shari values conversation and storytelling as powerful tools for co-constructing knowledge and driving meaningful change. With expertise in workshop facilitation and webinar delivery, she creates dynamic learning environments that foster collaboration, critical thinking, and professional growth.

Associate Professor Gehan Roberts is a developmental-behavioural paediatrician and holds appointments with The Royal Children’s Hospital's Centre for Community Child Health, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and the University of Melbourne. Gehan completed his clinical fellowship in child development at the Boston Children's Hospital. He has a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University and a PhD in the field of child development from the University of Melbourne. Gehan is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Community Child Health, leading Clinical Services and the Victorian Training Program in Community Child Health. Gehan is a past-President of the Australasian Society for Developmental Paediatrics, the peak body for Australasian doctors who care for children with developmental disorders.

Sophie is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist with extensive experience supporting children, adolescents, and families in both clinical and school settings. She works with a wide range of emotional and developmental concerns, including anxiety, ADHD, autism, and learning difficulties. In addition to her private practice, Sophie lectures and supervises provisional psychologists at the University of Melbourne. She collaborates closely with parents, carers, and schools to foster resilience and communication in young people. With a warm and practical approach, Sophie is committed to helping children and families navigate challenges and thrive in both their personal and academic lives.

Brad Morgan is the Director of Emerging Minds and leads the delivery of national infant, child, adolescent and family mental health strategies. These include the National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health and the Children of Parents with Mental Illness initiative. His leadership is focused on bringing together practice and lived experience expertise together with international and Australian research to support the design and delivery of national mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention strategies that improve the mental health of infants, children, young people and their families.

Sarah König is a speech pathologist, facilitator and clinical educator who believes that real learning happens when we feel connected, curious and safe. She has spent her career working across diverse health, education and community settings, supporting children, families and the professionals alongside them. Sarah is passionate about strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming approaches, and holds a deep respect for the wisdom people already carry. She loves creating spaces that feel engaging and human, spaces where people can reflect, experiment and grow their practice with confidence.

Dr Deb Marks is a paediatrician who has also trained in child psychiatry. She has been working in the field of autism and neurodiversity since 1989, as part of the Specialist Autism Team at RCH Mental Health and GASDAC team at Latrobe Valley CYMHS, teaching at Mindful and the Autism Teaching Institute and research in sleep and autism at Deakin and Monash Universities. 

Dr Allison Cox is the Director of the Berry Street Take Two program which provides therapeutic services to children impacted by child abuse, neglect, family violence and other adverse experiences.   Take Two is the Victorian-wide therapeutic service for children in the child protection system, providing clinical assessments and evidence based interventions, specialist therapeutic support for parents, carers and other agencies as well as research and training activities. 

Allison has extensive experience in child and adolescent mental health and is a keen advocate for improving the service responses for the more vulnerable children, young people and families in our community.

She has a doctorate in Occupational Therapy from La Trobe University and a Master of Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from Monash University with current APHRA registration.  

She has more than 30 years’ experience in child and adolescent mental health services providing psychodynamic oriented therapy and developmentally focused specialist consultation.  In addition, she has held numerous senior operational and project management positions at Alfred Health and Berry Street. 

Dr Lyn Radford is an AHPRA registered Clinical Psychologist and Psychology Board approved supervisor. She has more than 20 years’ experience working in the fields of mental health and trauma through her work at Barwon Centre Against Sexual Assault, Headspace and Take Two. Whilst she has experience working across the lifespan, she has specialised in working with children and infants, providing therapeutic interventions at the levels of individual, dyadic, family and group.

Dr Radford co-authored a case study of family therapy, with a family recovering from family violence, that was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy in 2010. She has close to 15 years of experience providing clinical supervision to supervisees from a range of professional backgrounds and secondary consultation to professionals in the Child Protection sector.

Dr Radford has held senior positions at Take Two for the past 10 years and is currently the Senior Clinical Manager of the Knowledge Team at Take Two.

Bronwyn is currently the speech pathology manager at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. She has previously held clinical, leadership and/or research roles at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Perth Children’s Hospital, and the Telethon Kids Institute.

Bronwyn manages a team of acute speech pathologists at RCH who see infants and children with feeding and communication difficulties. She has a range of clinical and research interests and has contributed to research publications on childhood apraxia of speech, speech-genetics, autism, and paediatric dysphagia. Bronwyn’s PhD (awarded in 2017 at the University of Sydney) investigated the course and characteristics of persistent childhood apraxia of speech.