Melbourne Children's Campus Mental Health Strategy 2021-2026

Overview

What is the Melbourne Children's Campus Mental Health Strategy 2021-2026?

Lifetime mental health problems begin in childhood. Each year, The Royal Children’s Hospital treats thousands of young people with established mental health conditions and an even greater number of children and young people at risk of mental health difficulties alongside their physical health concerns or disabilities.

The Campus Mental Health Strategy, is working towards an integrated approach to mental health care, research, and education across the Melbourne Children’s Campus. This encompasses The Royal Children's Hospital, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics and beyond. 

Our approach

We're doing this by focusing on:

• aligning and coordinating clinical and academic mental health research across the campus
• improving staff knowledge, skills and confidence through education and training
• embedding mental health care across the campus that is:
  • family-centred
  • trauma-informed and focussed on prevention
  • evidence-based and consistent.

Lived Experience Advisors

Lived and living experiences of mental health concerns and recovery are at the heart of everything we do. We have established a Lived Experience Advisor (LEA) Network that connects us with over 1,500 LEAs who actively participate in the co-design and development of our outcomes and work alongside us to improve services, research and education across the campus. 

Steering Committee

Our strategy is guided by the expertise of our Steering Committee, a group of dedicated campus leaders who are passionate about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, families, carers, and campus staff.

Supporters

The development and implementation of the strategy has been supported by many passionate people from across the campus and the strategy’s Lived Experience Advisors.

Our achievements and impact

Here are some of our achievements and what we’re working on across our key areas.

Consistent Quality Care

• Developed an Australian-first Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guideline for Anxiety in Children and Young People
• Translated this Clinical Practice Guideline into a supporting anxiety resource for parents, carers and young people – to be released in September 2024
• Delivered a measurement-based care pilot in the Centre for Community Child Health outpatient clinics
• Currently in the development stages of a Clinical Practice Guideline for suicide and self-harm in children and young people

Trauma-Informed Preventative Care (TIPC)

• Developed a TIPC Policy Summary targeted at The Royal Children Hospital (RCH) executive team for the implementation of TIPC across the RCH as part of the RCH Strategic Plan 2023-2026
• Currently piloting a TIPC e-learning package to be completed in October 2024
• Conducted an evaluation and strengthening of the Behavioural Support Profile in the RCH electronic medical record, supporting the non-medical needs of children and young people

Family-Centred Care

• Currently piloting our newly developed Family Wellbeing Model, which includes an e-learning training package, to be completed in October 2024

Research

• Awarded research grants to seven clinically-driven research projects in years 1 to 4, and an additional two large mental health research projects in years 4 and 5
• Currently developing core outcome measures for mental health in children and young people

Education and training 

• Developed Mental Health Literacy e-learning modules for a range of clinical groups to build skills and confidence in integrating mental health into usual care
• Integrated all education outputs into existing campus mental health education 

Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS)

• Developed an e-learning education package for clinicians to better understand MUS
• Drafted Kids Health Info Factsheets for Medically Unexplained Symptoms, currently under review
• Developed a family-facing resource to be published in late 2024

Lived Experience Engagement

• Established the Lived Experience Advisor (LEA) Network in 2022, providing access to around 2,000 people of all ages (over 15 years) and backgrounds who identify as having lived experience of mental health concerns and recovery for consultation and co-design with all strategy activities
• Established the Children’s Mental Health Gallery, which showcases creative expressions and amplifies mental health experiences through art

Mental Health Central

• Developed our Mental Health Central website to house and promote all outcomes of the Campus Mental Health Strategy

Advocacy

• Developed our Mental Health Advocacy Toolkit to equip and enable the Strategy Implementation team and campus stakeholders in mental health advocacy activities

The difference we hope to make

The Melbourne Children’s Campus and its partner organisations have the expertise to provide children, young people, and families with world class mental health care integrated with physical health care.

Funded by The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, the vision of the Campus Mental Health Strategy is:

That all infants, children and young people and their families will be able to access high quality, equitable and consistent prevention, and mental health care where and when they need it to achieve sustained, optimised developmental, health and wellbeing outcomes.

To help achieve this vision, the objective of the Campus Mental Health Strategy is to equip and strengthen the delivery of high quality, integrated child, and adolescent mental health care, supported by research and education to ensure the best outcomes for children, young people, and their families.

Clinically driven research will inform workforce education and training programs, which in turn will inform evidence-based, consistent care. Child and family centred care will be at the heart of this.

At the conclusion of the strategy, we believe we will have changed mental health awareness and literacy of campus staff. There have been many conversations and activities in partnership with campus stakeholders to raise the visibility of mental health across the campus. This includes stronger focus on trauma-informed care, the needs of families, evidence-based clinical practice, and research and education resources.