By Emily Berger, Monash University, Karen Martin, University of Western Australia,
Mental health issues among children are on the rise due to the impacts of the COVID pandemic, including lockdowns.
Recent reports show there has been a 28% spike in calls to the phone counselling service Kids Helpline between March and July 2020 compared with the same period last year in Victoria, which is under stage 3 and 4 restrictions.
This prompted the state government to fast-track its plan to provide every state secondary school with funding to recruit its own mental-health support practitioner by the end of next year. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced in Augustmore than 1,500 school staff would have additional mental-health training in partnership with Headspace to help identify at-risk students as remote learning continues.
The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse recommended schools be “trauma-informed”. Being trauma-informed does not mean teachers and schools must be trained to treat trauma. Rather they must understand the impact it can have on children’s lives.
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