Wellbeing and Mental Health
Over the course of the last three or four years, we have noticed a distinct increase in children presenting with separation anxiety in the mornings before school. This has clearly been a direct derivative of the extended periods of remote learning and lockdowns, and is something we know many of our families are battling with every day. We are always happy to support and assist as much as possible, and in doing so, we have reached out to the Student Support Services from the Department of Education who have provided us with these links to share with our families - we hope you may find some of this useful. We will also be looking at some of these with our staff, and building any strategies into our wellbeing curriculum and structures here at school.
Understanding Separation Anxiety
Kids Health Information : Anxiety - primary school aged children (rch.org.au)
Separation anxiety in children | Raising Children Network
Managing Separation Anxiety in Children - Learning Links
Anxiety | What can I do to manage anxiety? | Kids Helpline
Free online resources
Login | BRAVE Self-Help Program (uq.edu.au) Free online evidence-based program specifically for Anxiety. Has a program for parents to do at the same time as the parent. This supports consistent language to help the child.
Kids Helpline - Niggle App (studentwellbeinghub.edu.au) App for upper primary (Gr 5/6) to support mental health. Provides evidence based strategies and can provide prompts and reminders.
Podcasts
How to manage separation anxiety on sleepovers. (childpsychologist.com.au)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4BbU8xH5sGYtkePg6UfsGe?si=JMcIZu2rTZK4IP1FEfKwjw
Local Support
Head to Health - Ballarat Community Health (bchc.org.au) provides 6 free counselling sessions without a referral.
Mental health treatment plan | healthdirect from you GP to see a private psychologist. Call the psychologist first to see if they have availability as some has waiting list. You may need to ask for a long appointment with your GP to create the mental health care plan.
Affordable Psychological Support for Adults and Children
FedCare Psychology Services provides psychological services to members of community within Ballarat and surrounding districts. Our first consultation is free, ongoing sessions are $10 per session or $5 for concession card holders. You do not need a GP referral to access our services.
Psychological services will be provided by provisionally registered psychologists, who are currently undertaking advanced training in the Master of Psychology (Clinical) and the Master of Professional Psychology programs. All services provided are closely supervised by a team of highly-experienced registered psychologists, all of whom hold both endorsement in clinical psychology and registration as clinical supervisors with the Psychology Board of Australia in APHRA.
We offer a range of psychological services for children (5 years and older), adolescents, adults, including psychological and educational assessment, and the psychological treatment of various behavioural and emotional problems, such as:
- Depression
- Anxiety and phobias
- Anger management
- Trauma and grief
- Eating-body image problems
- Sleep disturbances
- Bullying
- Stress
- Grief and loss
- Relationship difficulties
- Sexual issues
- Parent-child conflict
- Bed-wetting and toileting problems
- Adjustment problems
We currently have appointments available for adults and adolescents and short waitlist for children. Our waitlist for cognitive and educational assessments is open for the second half of 2024.
If you would like to see one of our Provisional Psychologists, you can contact us:
Phone: (03) 5327 8483
Email: psychology.services@federation.edu.au
FedCare Psychology ServicesSuite 4, Greenhill Enterprise Centre (GEC)Mt Helen Campus, Tech ParkUniversity Drive, Mount Helen