On 26 March 2024, the Wellbeing and Prevention Coalition in Mental Health launched a Policy Brief titled School-based mental health and wellbeing programs. What's working, what's not?
AHPA is a proud member of the Wellbeing and Prevention Coalition in Mental Health, a group of like-minded organisations working together to enhance Australia’s approach to promoting mental health and wellbeing.
The Policy Brief, School-based mental health and wellbeing programs. What's working, what's not?, provides an overview of the impact of mental health conditions on Australian school-aged children and adolescents.
Schools are ideal settings for mental wellbeing promotion and preventative mental health interventions and there is substantial evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these interventions. However, despite their benefits, there is considerable variation across Australian schools in the use of such initiatives, the selection of evidence-based programs, and the quality of program implementation. There is also very poor tracking of the impacts of initiatives, and students’ mental health more broadly.
The brief provides recommendations outlining how schools can address the challenges they face in choosing and implementing high-quality, evidence-based wellbeing and prevention interventions, and by improving the way we monitor student mental health. Governments also need to broaden their focus beyond student mental wellbeing, to support the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and other staff responsible for creating a mentally healthy school environment.
To read the Policy Brief, please click here.
