MHiPS features at our 30th anniversary event

01/04/2024

The Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) initiative was recently featured at the Centre for Community Child Health’s 30th anniversary event. Dr Simone Darling, Senior Research Fellow and Senior Program Manager for the MHiPS initiative, chaired the session, which examined recent changes to the political and social landscape regarding child mental health and wellbeing. 

 

Dr Darling presented the context for why there needs to be a significant shift in focus and investment towards supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing, citing the current status of contemporary paediatric morbidity in Australia, which includes:

  • >600,000 children and young people with mental health problems
  • >350,000 child abuse notifications per year
  • >60,000 children starting school developmentally vulnerable in one or more areas of development increases in autism, ADHD, school problems, violence and aggression. 

Dr Darling highlighted the need for this shift in investment and approaches to focus on populations of children, building on universal platforms, with more coordinated, flexible and integrated service systems that are accountable at the community level and that engage parents and community members in designing and implementing solutions to problems. Schools were highlighted as an ideal universal system that can provide non-stigmatising mental health and wellbeing promotion, prevention and early intervention support for children and their families. In 2019 the Centre in collaboration with University of Melbourne developed the MHiPS initiative, leveraging schools as a universal platform, to support student mental health and wellbeing.  

 

To discuss the origins of MHiPS and the benefits schools are seeing post-implementation, a panel session brought together four experts:

  • Professor Frank Oberklaid, Director of MHiPS and Foundational Director of the Centre for Community Child Health
  • Emily Duff, Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, Sunbury Heights Primary School
  • Justin McDonnell, Executive Director, Child Safeguarding Reform, Victorian Department of Education
  • Craig Connelly, Partner, Community Social & ESG Investment, Perpetual Limited and former CEO of the Ian Potter Foundation. 

 

The panel discussed the importance of the strength of the evidence in motivating philanthropic and other funders to make an investment in a new initiative, which was also key to MHiPS scaling from an initial pilot of 10 schools to its current state-wide expansion in Victoria. 

Results outlined during the panel session included:

  • >90% of school staff agree the Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader model increases the capacity of the whole school and the confidence of teachers to support student mental health and wellbeing
  • >95% of teachers agreed the MHWL-provided professional learning enhanced their ability to identify and support students with mental health concerns
  • >96% of MHWLs agreed the MHiPS training program enhanced their skills. 

Importantly, and as substantiated by the on-the-ground experience of Emily Duff, Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader (MHWL) at Sunbury Heights Primary School, the following cultural shifts have also been observed:

  • increased prioritisation of student mental health and wellbeing (84% of MHWLs)
  • reduction in stigma among school staff (76% of MHWLs) and families (53% of MHWLs)
  • positive changes in language around mental health and wellbeing (82% of MHWLs).
  • And while it is still early days for MHiPS, MHWLs have also observed improved access to services for students (54% of MHWLs) and improved student mental health and wellbeing (77% of MHWLs). 

The MHiPS team would like to thank our supporters and community partners for their ongoing championing of the MHiPS initiative. Watch the panel presentation below.