Mental Health First Aid International welcomes the Australian Government’s response to its COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report, including an urgent commitment to tackle the pandemic’s continuing impact on youth mental health.
The first recommendation published in the report is to address the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including prioritising greater investment in mental health support for children and young people.
The inquiry’s findings add to recent reports, including the Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Youth Mental Health, that highlight a growing trend of mental health distress among young people, particularly in the wake of the pandemic.
MHFAI CEO Angus Clelland says we cannot delay urgent investments in mental health promotion and prevention strategies that address the unique needs of young people, especially within the school and tertiary environments.
‘Embedding Mental Health First Aid® (MHFA) training into school communities is critical to equipping our educators with the necessary skills to support youth mental health. A whole-of-school approach to MHFA will empower students, teachers and parents to recognise and respond to the signs that someone may be struggling, and to intervene early.’
‘We can take this even further by equipping every pre-service teacher student with essential mental health first aid skills to ensure they enter the classroom prepared to respond to the mental health needs of young people.’
MHFAI has partnered with Orygen and the Australian Council of Deans of Education on a landmark proposal to train up to 100,000 teacher students over the next four years, as a fillip to the Government’s flagship schools Be You mental health strategy.
This builds on the health promotion charity’s work on the fully funded health professionals’ students’ program available in every university in Australia, launched this month by the Hon Emma McBride, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
MHFAI is calling on the Government to work closely with the whole mental health sector, and those with lived experience, to develop a comprehensive and effective mental health response.
‘We need a whole-of-system approach to mental health reform so that young people can get the support they need earlier. We need more investment in walk-in Medicare mental health centres and Headspace services to ensure that every young person can access the help they need when and where they need it.’
‘Failure to act will have lasting consequences on our youth and society at large.’
