school link term 4 2014

Contact DetailsFiona Lo / Helen AstolfiSchool-Link CoordinatorGateway Centre, Suite 1, Level 2237 Mann St, Gosford 2250Ph: (02) 4328 7350

TERM 4 2014 | VOL: 8 | ISSUE 4

CENTRAL COAST

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

It has been an extremely busy 2014 and we cannot believe it is so close to Christmas.....again...!!!!

Mental Health Month in October kept everyone busy with so many ac-tivities and events to attend. A key event was the headspace Family and Friends evening, held at ycentral. This event provided helpful information to those who are supporting their young friends or family members who are experiencing a mental health problem. The event was a great suc-cess with very positive feedback received from the evaluations. So we will be hosting more of these sessions in the future.

Another exciting event that took place was the YPPI 20th birthday cele-brations. The celebrations of the YPPI anniversary took place at ycentral on October 24th. The service began in 1994 under the keen vision and leadership of Deb Howe, Manager, Children & Young People’s Mental Health. Deb still remains as committed and passionate about youth men-tal health as she did 20 years ago. This commitment has seen the service grow from one staff member to now 75 FTE (nearly 100 staff). The service is co-located with headspace at ycentral in the Gateway centre, Mann St, Gosford. The celebration was a very proud day for the Central Coast, we have such a world class youth mental health service that is acclaimed by nationally and internationally. Congratulations to all our fantastic staff for their dedication and hard work.

headspace Gosford also launched the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander campaign ‘Yarnsafe”. The campaign is the first youth-led na-tional Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander youth mental health campaign of its kind. It was an excellent launch with a performance by Gorokan High School Didge and Dance Group, see inside this issue for more details.

Also in this issue we have some great resources for Primary Schools and some interesting articles you may want to access. Finally, we have set up a survey monkey for you to provide us with feedback regarding the many aspects of the School-Link Program. If you could take the time to fill this out it will certainly help us both plan and improve the services we provide.

We hope you have a great end to the year and have a safe and enjoyable Christmas and New Year.

Regards Helen & Fiona

From the School-Link Coordinators

Mental Health Support & Referral

YPPI 20th Birthday

Family, Friends & Young Carers

Yarnsafe Launch

Aboriginal Cultural Practices

Social Media and Technology

Evidence Based Practice

Primary School Resources

School-Link Survey

From the School-Link Coordinators

PrincipalCounsellorsHead TeacherDeputy PrincipalYear Advisors

HT Welfare

LS Team

Staff Room

PD/H/PE

CIRCULATION

ADMIN Team

Mental Health Line 1800 011 511

School-Link Services

For referral to Children and Young People’s Mental Health contact the Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511

The School-Link Consultation Line does not replace the usual referral process but is available to discuss any queries or clinical issues regarding a student/young person.

New School Requests Booking System

Children and Young People’s Mental Health and headspace Gosford have developed a new online booking system for schools to make the following requests:

• Resources• Presentations for Student and Staff• Workshops for Student and Staff• Information Stalls• Other events

Schools can access the booking form on the ycentral or headspace Gosford websites. The use of this form can help us collect the information we require to assess your request based on our criteria and avail-ability. All requests received will be processed and you will be contacted by phone. Please note that we require a minimum of 4 weeks’ notice. Urgent request can be considered, however it will still be subjected to our criteria and availability.

The School-Link Consultation Line is still available for consultation, enquiries and other requests. Schools can contact the School-Link Consultation Line to discuss your school request before completing the form.The new system aims to make it easier for schools to make a school request through a central contact point. If you do have any questions, contact the School-Link Consultation Line on 0414 193 139.


Central Coast Mental Health LineThe Central Coast Mental Health Service sees peo-ple with moderate to severe mental health issues. The Mental Health Line makes accessing Mental Health Services easier by providing a central point of contact for all referrals across NSW. The Mental Health Line is a 24 hour telephone line which operates 7 days a week.

If you, one of your students, or someone else you know needs help with a mental health problem, call the Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511. By following the prompts, you will be connected to your local mental health service, in this instance, the Central Coast Mental Health Service. If the Central Coast Mental Health Service is appropri-ate, your referral will be forwarded to the appropriate mental health team. When the Central Coast Mental Health Service is not appropriate, information will be provided about other specialised health and community services to better meet your clinical needs.

The Central Coast Mental Health Service is NOT an emergency service. If an emergency

response is needed, call 000

The Mental Health Line is not a telephone counselling service.

Telephone counselling options include:

Lifeline

Mensline Australia

Kids Help Line

Handy hints for calling the

Mental Health Line

You will be asked questions about the person you are referring. We want your contact with us to be easy and useful. The more information you can provide us, the better the assessment and referral options can be.

If you are concerned about the mental health of a young person, remember you can make a referral by calling the Mental Health Line.

You will be asked a number of questions. So make sure you are prepared.

These are some of the questions that may be asked by the Mental Health Line Team • Contact details, eg: name, DOB, address,

phone number.

• Referring person’s details, eg: name, address, phone number, organisation.

• GP name and contact details.

• Contact details for next of kin/family/carer.

• Cultural Background, e.g Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander background or CALD.

• Language/s spoken

• Do you need an interpreter?

• What is the reason for the referral?

• What is happening for the person right now? How long has the person been feeling this way?

• Is the person having thoughts of suicide or self-harm? Is their intent to act on these thoughts, e.g. a plan or the means available?

• Is the person on any medication? What are they? What is the current dose?

• Current and past physical health problems

• Is the person consenting to the referral?

• Is the person agreeable to an assessment?

• Does the person have a history of/or current misuse of alcohol and/or drug use?

• Is the person currently physically and/or ver-bally aggressive towards others?

• Is the person willing to participate in treat-ment?

13 11 14

1800 55 1800

1300 78 99 78


Happy 20th Birthday to YPPI

“It’s a significant achievement for the Central Coast. Friday’s celebration was also a reunion, bringing together past and present staff to share their many memories and experiences of the past 20 years. Working with many staff across the past 20 years, I am amazed by the amount of young peo-ple we have assisted. They inspire me to continue growing these services within Central Coast Local Health Dis-trict, which has been very supportive over the years”.

Deb HoweSource: Central Coast Express

The celebrations took place at ycentral with many past and present staff members in at-tendance enjoying the trip down memory lane.

From YPPI (Young People’s Early Psychosis and Intervention) to CYPMH (Children and Young People’s Mental Health) the service has grown from one that was Deb Howe to now with 100 staff.

The original YPPI house still stands today. However we grew out of that and we are now located at ycentral in the Gateway Centre, Gosford with headspace. CYPMH and head-space at ycentral provide mental health ser-vices to thousands of young people on the Central Coast.

I would like to acknowledge the hard work the team puts in everyday to ensure this is a highly acclaimed service. I would also like to thank the team for organising such a great day of celebrations in particular Carla Norman and Daniel Drysdale, headspace Gosford.

It is a very proud day for the Central Coastthat we have such a world class youth mental health service that is acclaimed both nationally and internationally.


A trip down memory lane...!!!!


Mental Health Month - Family & Friends

headspace Gosford information evening was held on Tuesday 14th October 2014 for family and friends, parents and carers of young people with a mental health issue.

We had resounding success for the headspace information evening hosted during Mental Health Month and Carers Week. We achieved our aim of providing early intervention for family, friends and carers of young people with mental health issues who wanted information and to know where to get help.

The evening exceeded expectations. The format was somewhat ex-perimental with a panel of ‘experts’ answering questions gathered from participants when they registered. This worked well as respon-dents said the evening was informative and met their needs.

Dr John Butler, headspace Gosford GP, facilitated the night and the’ panel’ provided the key to success for the evening. The panel included Dr Seema Padencheri, Dr Tony Rix, Emma Merlino YAT headspace, Patrick Sharples YMH, Ruth Phelan COPMI and two peer workers. The level of expertise and knowledge was delivered in a professional, helpful, practical and sensitive manner. The input of the two Peer Workers provided the panel with an all-round per-spective and they nailed it!

Uniting Care and Inter-relate supported the event and were avail-able for questions as were other staff from Youth Access Team and the panel. This worked well and participants eagerly took the re-sources.

The evening demonstrates the ‘formula’ was successful in provid-ing community engagement and early intervention for family, friends and carers of young people with mental health issues and will be used for future events.

Dr John Butler, headspace GP

headspace GosfordFamily & Friends Project

4328 7350

We Care - Young Carer Teacher Challenge


A team of young carers have been busy visiting local high schools and engaging with school staff in raising aware-ness of young carers at school. The young carers provided a presentation to the teachers where they were able to provide insight to the teachers as to how hard it can be for young carers. Feedback from the teachers included, “Very engaging and informative” and “great to get real carers point of view”. Having young carers share their personal experiences is powerful for raising awareness of young carers in schools. The team spoke to about 180 teachers in total from local high schools, including Northlakes, Narara Valley High, and Kincumber. The young carers also visited Youth Health and Community Nursing. The two themes the team wanted to share with teachers were "to believe and support young carers" and to encourage teachers to let their students know "they are not alone!"

This initiative has been supported by Central Coast Carer Support Unit.

headspace Youth Alliance - update

The CYPMH and headspace Gosford Youth Alliance have been busy over the past 2 months finalising their train-ing as health employees and commencing consultations on committees, employment interviews and attendance at Community Awareness Events.The team attended a ‘Toastmasters’ introductory course as well, to snapshot their skills in presentations. Our Youth Alliance representatives are involved in a range of activities and consultations including; recruitment panels, website design, community events, judging mental health artworks and participation in the development of headspace social media strategy. The Youth Alliance also attend a range of events with our headspace Gosford events team to engage young people in the community and provide them with relevant mental health information and other relevant youth issues. For more information on the Youth Alliance and programs visit www.ycentral.com.au


‘Yarnsafe Launch’

headspace Gosford launched the headspace National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander campaign ‘Yarnsafe’, on Wednesday, 17th of September 2014. The Campaign is the first youth-led na-tional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth mental health campaign of its kind.

‘Yarn safe’ was developed with a group of twelve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people from across Australia who want to get the message out - that there’s no shame in seeking help and talking about wellbeing. The campaign aims to improve mental health literacy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island-er young people and encourage them to get help at headspace centres located around the country, eheadspace online and tele-phone counselling service or other appropriate mental health ser-vices. At the headspace Gosford Launch, Uncle Gavi Duncan (below)

Left: Gorokan High Didge and Dance GroupBelow: Uncle Gavi Duncan and Nathan Bramston

gave a touching Welcome to Country followed by speeches from Children & Young People’s Mental Health Service Manager Deb Howe and Federal Member for Robertson Lucy Wicks. headspace Aboriginal Youth Reference Group member Blake Tatafu presented and spoke about how the cam-paign came together. Followed by Gorokan High Didge and Dance Group who closed the event with an amazing performance and sharing their culture!!!!

Approximately 70 young people, community members and youth mental health staff attended the event. It was great to see such a large repre-sentation from community. to learn more about the campaign go to www.yarnsafe.org.au.”

headspace Aboriginal Project OfficerNathan Bramston

4328 7870


Aboriginal Cultural Practices

Strengths of Australian Aboriginal cultural practices in family life and child rearing

This paper explores some of the characteristics of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural prac-tices that contribute to effective family functioning, and how these practices can have positive effects on children and communities. The approach is to gather the views of Aboriginal families and compare these perspectives with supporting evidence drawn from the literature. The findings suggest that, provided the necessary social condi-tions are in place, culture can be a protective force for children, families and communities.

KEY MESSAGES

• Aboriginal kinship relations reflect a complex and dynamic system that is not captured by existing non-indigenous definitions of family.

• Emerging evidence supports some of the strengths of traditional Aboriginal culture in family func-tioning and raising children, yet conventional academic wisdom can be incompatible with tradi-tional knowledge systems.

• The strengths of Aboriginal cultural traditions, as they apply to family life and raising children, re-volve around four interrelated themes, including:

Theme 1: A collective community focus on child rearing helps children - the values of interdepend-ence, group cohesion and community loyalty are key features of Aboriginal family and community life, where raising children is considered to be a shared responsibility of all community members.

Theme 2: Children need the freedom to explore and experience the world - Aboriginal communities offer their children every opportunity to explore the world around them, to help them develop the nec-essary skills to successfully negotiate their pathways to adulthood.

Theme 3: Elderly family members are important to family functioning - the elderly are highly respect-ed for their contributions to family life in Aboriginal communities, particularly in helping children to understand the practical aspects of life and society.

Theme 4: Spirituality helps families cope with challenges - families and communities who engage in spiritual practices benefit from a greater sense of identity, and individuals are more likely to connect with, support and help protect one another.

“Aboriginal culture is strength,and acts as a protective force for children and families”


Social Media

The Teen Vanishing Act: How the Latest Social Media Trends Are Hurting Our Kids

The insults kept pouring in, the middle schooler told me, until she read one that made it nearly impossible for her to concentrate on her schoolwork.‘U should die,’ an anonymous poster had written.She had stopped me after a presentation I’d given at her school about social media, and explained the nightmare she suffered the previous school year after creating a profile on Ask.fm, a social media site that allows people to leave nameless, faceless comments on other’s profiles. At least seven teen suicides have been linked to Ask.fm in the last two years.Hours later I presented to 200 parents at the same school. When I asked how many of them were familiar with Ask.fm, only two hands went up.For the past few years, I’ve seen teens shift their social media habits to apps and sites that provide illusions of ephemeral and anonymous interactions -- illusions that are quickly eroding their social and emotional well-being, and can be deadly.

The Snapchat SyndromeEarlier this month, Snapchat announced it had turned down a $3 billion acquisition. In less than three years, the mobile messaging app has exploded in popularity, with 400 million messages and photos sent through its system each day. Snapchat’s main audience is be-tween thirteen and twenty-three years old, and at least 13 percent of teens admit to using Snapchat regularly.Recipients of Snapchat messages have up to ten sec-onds to capture a screenshot, so those who use it “without any anxiety about the permanence” are sore-ly mistaken. Numerous Snapchat hacks allow users to save screenshots without even notifying the sender, and the FBI warns that pedophiles use Snapchat to lure young victims.A 2012 McAfee study revealed that 70 percent of teens actively attempted to conceal their online be-havior from their parents.We need to realise what we are really glorifying when we let kids buy into these illusions of ephemeral and anonymous interactions. Adolescents who are still building social and emotional resilience are often un-able to cope with the onslaught of anonymous online interaction, and yet many of these latest apps target them as the key demographic. It is also far more diffi-cult for kids to develop empathy skills when they hide behind a computer screen -- and nearly impossible when they falsely believe photos and messages will disappear and/or remain anonymous.

Even those who try to stay informed face an uphill bat-tle as popularity constantly shifts. Teens are fickle -- as noted in the recent Pew research study suggesting that teens’ enthusiasm for Facebook is fading. Though 94 percent of the teen users still had Facebook accounts, many admitted that they now focus their online efforts on other sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Teen online socialization is not going away. We -- and by “we” I mean parents, educators, and young peo-ple -- need to build a better level of awareness, set increased guidelines around use, spend time learning how each app using really works, and understand the consequences.Get online and build a profile on certain apps and learn how they work. Ask kids what their friends are using -- children may not be as initially forthcoming about their own habits, though most will talk openly about their friends.Classroom culture is remarkably affected by underly-ing social media interactions. Having students reflect on how each app or site benefits or hinders them can be a meaningful starting point for classroom discus-sion.

Ana Homayoun

Full article @ www.huffingtonpost.com/ana-homay-oun/the-teen-vanishing-act-ho_b_4351508.html

Source: SSLHD, School-Link Newsletter


Online Safety

Online Safety

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about online safe-ty and relevant resources available for parents. An awareness of how to ensure safe practices online is an important skill for young people. While parental involvement in safe use of technology should start from a child’s first use, parents continue to be a critical influence in ensuring that teenagers practice responsible digital citizenship and engage in online activities safely.

“Online safety” is used interchangeably with terms such as “Internet safety”, “cybersafety”, “Internet security”, “online security” and “cy-ber security”. The risk of using computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices to access the Internet or other social media is that breaches of privacy may lead to fraud, identity theft and unauthorised access to personal information.

Other risks for children include cyberbullying, stalking, or exposure to illicit materials. Criminal offenders have proven to be highly skilled at exploiting new modes of communication to gain access to children, and children can easily access adults-only materials if there are no protec-tive mechanisms in place (Australian Communications and Media Au-thority, Queensland Police, 2013).

These situations can place a young person’s emotional wellbeing, and in extreme cases physical wellbeing, at risk. This is particularly so where little or no attention has been paid to monitoring use, communicating with teenagers about use, or the security of the device being used. In these types of cases, and for the purpose of this paper, online safety is a child protection issue.

While online safety is important for protecting children from dangerous and inappropriate websites and materials, this does not mean that parents should discourage their children from accessing the Internet. The challenge is to help children enjoy the benefits of going online while avoiding the risks (Raising Children Network, 2011).

Source: SSLHD, School-Link Newsletter

RESOURCE -www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/technology/communication/techguide.pdf

Need help working out what is going on in the world of social media and technology? This resource provides information to help you navigate your way around the A - Z of technology and provides practical advice.



Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre

See more at: http://www.youngandwellcrc.org.au

CYPMH and headspace Gosford are proud of our Peer Worker Andrew Lawler who is a part of the Youth Brains Trust with Young and Well CRC. Andrew is currently in his third year of a Bachelor of Psychological Science at the University of New England. He is currently a Peer Support Worker at headspace Gosford as part of the CHOICE Project, a shared deci-sion-making service that aims to get young people accessing headspace more involved in making informed and preference-based decisions about the services that they can access.

The Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is an Australia-based, international research centre that unites young people with researchers, practitioners and policy makers from over 75 partner organisa-tions across the non-profit, academic, government and corporate sectors. The Australian Federal Govern-ment Department of Industry has provided $27.5 million funding, and Young and Well CRC has secured $8.3 million in case and over $80 million of in-kind contributions from our 14 Essential Participants, industry partners and over 50 end-user beneficiaries. The purpose of the Young and Well CRC is to explore the role of technology in young people’s lives, and to determine how those technologies can be used to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those aged 12 to 25. The Young and Well CRC is part of the Cooperative Research Centres Program, established by the Australian Government in 1991. The objective of the Co-operative Research Centres Program is to deliver significant economic, environmental and social benefits to Australia by supporting end-user driven research partnerships. CRCs address clearly articulated, major challenges that require medium to long-term collaborative efforts. CRCs link researchers with practitioners and end-users to focus Research and Development efforts on tackling particular challenges for Australians. CRCs pursue solutions to these challenges that are innovative, of high impact and capable of being effec-tively be deployed by end-users. -

The Youth Brains Trust is a group of enthusiastic and committed young people from around Australia, who are passionate about improving their own wellbeing and that of their peers. They play a pivotal role in ad-vising the Young and Well CRC Board and they sit in parallel with our Scientific Leadership Council and our Technologies and Innovations Collective. The Youth Brains Trust works in partnership with the Young and Well CRC community to determine what works best for young people, explore new and emerging technolo-gies to promote wellbeing, communicate the outcomes of our research and shape the future direction of the organisation.

To date, the Youth Brains Trust and over 600 other young people from our partner organisations have been critical in helping us shape our research agenda. The Young and Well CRC will continue to work in partner-ship with young people at every possible opportunity in order to discover and create the most effective and relevant ways that technology can be a positive part of young people’s lives.

The First Peoples Youth Council is a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander young people aged 12 to 25 from across Australia. The Council provides strategic advice and support to Young and Well CRC and our project teams to ensure that our research and outputs meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island-er young people.



Support in tough times - Encouraging young people to seek help for their friendsNSW Commission for Children and Young People.

A new report released on Wednesday 22 October shows schools can improve the lives of students by recog-nising the important role of friends in seeking adult help for young people with mental health problems. The report, Support in tough times: Encouraging young people to seek help for their friends, has been developed by the NSW Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) and the NSW Mental Health Commission.“Young people are often the first to know if one of their friends is experiencing a mental health problem. Friends are a vital source of support for young people going through a tough time, and this includes seeking help from adults,” said NSW Mental Health Commissioner John Feneley.

“It is not easy for a young person to approach an adult on behalf of a friend who may be struggling, and they face significant barriers. We now know that these include a concern for breaking their friend’s trust or causing them embarrassment, and not knowing how to handle the situation.

“Many young people also feel that adults either tend to blow things out of proportion or underplay the serious-ness of a problem. They’re concerned about adults maintaining confidentiality too,” he said.

The research shows for the first time how schools play an important role in overcoming these barriers and encouraging young people to seek adult help for their friends when they’re going through a tough time.

Director of Policy and Research at the Commission for Children and Young People, Gregor Macfie, said that the key is a whole of school approach that builds trust between students and staff and gives students the practical skills and information they need to support their friends.

“We found that involving young people was the key to the success of this research and will remain central to devising approaches to mental health support that actually work for young people,” Mr Macfie said.

“Of course encouraging young people to seek adult help for their friends is not something that schools can do alone. Schools also need strong partnerships with parents, carers and mental health services in the commu-nity that are readily accessible to the young people who need them,” Mr Feneley said.

Key facts:

• The research involved surveys and focus groups with students and principals across the school sectors in NSW.

• The student survey was completed by 3,241 students in Years 9 and 10 between August and November 2013.

• Mental health problems had touched the lives of most Year 9 and 10 students, with 71% reporting that they had known another person with a mental health problem and over 64% reporting they had known another young person or friend with a mental health problem.

• Most young people (87%) were able to identify a serious mental health problem in a hypothetical scenario.

• Just over half (52%) of young people said they would seek adult help for a friend with a serious mental health problem.

• Half (51%) of the young people who had known a friend with a mental health problem in the past had sought adult help for their friend.

NSW Commission for Children and Young People (2014). Support in tough times : Encouraging young people to seek help for their friends.

Sydney: NSW Commission forChildren and Young People; Mental Health Commission of New South Wales, 2014.


Primary School Resources

http://www.copmi.net.au

Primary schools are about more than just the

education of students. They are often a gate-

way to the wider community and

provide support families and children.

How primary schools can help?

• Primary school staff can make an enormous differ-ence to children and their families by:

• Providing a stable environment for students.

• Helping children to develop resilience, appropriate social skills and help-seeking skills.

• Promoting awareness and access to support ser-vices for parents and children where a parent has a mental illness.

• Building the mental health literacy of the school community to help create openness and reduce the stigma of mental illness.

Some of the ways you can support children and families affected by a parent’s mental illness:

• Have a practice of welcoming families to your school in a genuinely warm and non-judgemental way.

• Develop policy and procedures around mental health and mental illness that enable families to feel welcome and find the support they need.

• Seek more information and other resources for yourself and your colleagues about mental illness. Two useful websites are:

COPMI: www.copmi.net.au KidsMatter: www.kidsmatter.edu.au/primary

• Run social and emotional learning programs in your school.

• Check out the KidsMatter programs guidewww.kidsmatter.edu.au/social-and-emotional-learning

• SKIPS is a great example of a mental health pro-motion program for schools to increase support for children of parents with mental illness.

The Supporting Kids In Primary School (SKIPS) web-site is also a good resource: www.skips.each.com.au

• Support families to use Family Care Plans-find ex-amples of Care Plans at www.copmi.net.au/care-

Help parents feel comfortable to talk about their mental health:

• Equip all staff to work from the principles of en-quiry, no judgement and no blame when talking with parents, creating space for listening and as-sisting them to find solutions and support.

• Assure parents, during early contact with them, that it’s best for their child if you/the school is in-formed about any important issues at home that may affect the child (e.g. health issues, a parent’s chronic illness or mental health issues). Don’t be afraid to use the words ‘mental illness’ or

‘mental health problems’ when talking to parents about the types of things that may affect a child.

• Although parents will not always share information about their mental illness, they are more likely to do so if they the information will be used to sup-port them and their child and will not be misused in any way.

• Be careful not to suggest that the parent has a mental illness if they have not disclosed this infor-mation to you.

• Know the local mental health services that are available to assist families where a parent has a mental illness so that you can provide this informa-tion as needed.

• Communicate clearly to families about the sup-port and services the school can offer and how to access them (e.g. “sometimes when families are going through a rough time they find the follow-ing helpful - access to financial support, flexible arrangements for payments/parent-teacher inter-views, information about counselling and supports etc. If we can help you with any of these, please let me know”.

http://copmi.net.au


Primary Schools Resources

Ways you can assist the child:

You can help children to develop resilience by:

• Creating a warm and predictable environment in the classroom.

• Enhancing each child’s sense of responsibility and belonging.

• Assigning a ‘special’ role to a child can help them to feel valued.

• Being available to listen. Children respond well to staff that are genuinely interested in them, even if they know you can’t solve their problems.

• Supporting the child to use the coping skills they have and enhancing their social and communications skills.

• Encouraging and supporting the child to have posi-tive expectations of themself and their family.

• Assisting the child to find age-appropriate information on mental illness.

• Strengthening the child’s self-esteem and resilience by providing opportunities for them to practice and achieve mastery in school related activities.

Ways you can assist the parent-child relation-ship:

You may be able to assist the parent to develop, enhance or regain a secure and confident rela-tionship with their child by:

• Engaging with the parent about their child’s achievements and highlighting their strengths and interests.

• Supporting the family to participate in the school community (e.g. family picnics, athlet-ics day, information/activity nights).

• Supporting the parent to access other ser-vices to assist them to develop their relation-ship with their child if necessary (e.g. parent support programs).

• Providing access to information and support on child development and on parent/child communication.

The KidsMatter website features some useful resources:www.kidsmatter.edu.au


School-Link Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TNLXRC3

School-Link SurveySchool-Link is a state-wide collaborative initiative between NSW Health and the Department of Education and Communities. School-Link aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people through making positive links between health, education and other services.

Central Coast School-Link have had a busy year and was respon-sible for delivering a wide range of initiatives including the Central Coast Mental Health and Schools Conference, Youth Health Fo-rums, School-Link Newsletter and many more..

To help us to plan for 2015, we would like to hear your feedback, suggestions and ideas.

This survey is short. Please allow 5 minutes to complete it. Your feedback is greatly appreciated

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY

school link term 4 2014

Documents

mental health month

mental health problem

schoollink services

schoollink program

schoollink consultation

young friends

youth mental health

new school requests