Mental Health and Wellbeing

Hello wonderful Gardenvale community,

This year Gardenvale will be joining the Department of Education and Training’s Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) initiative, which provides funding for a dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader (MWHL). As student wellbeing outcomes is a passion of mine, I put my hand up to fill the role and continue the great work surrounding student wellbeing at our wonderful school.

It is, however, important to note what my role is not.

In this role I won’t be working directly with students in a reactive capacity – that is, I won’t work 1:1 with students to respond to incidents, crises, or issues related to their mental health or wellbeing. Students won’t be referred to me specifically for support (outside of my regular teaching capacities), and I won’t be conducting specific check ins.

In my role as Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader I:

embed evidence-based training and resources across the school to build the capability of staff to better identify and support students
provide support to individual teachers in the classroom with students who have been identified as in need
collaborate with staff and community to create clear pathways for students who may need further assessment and intervention within the school and to external community-based services
use informed referral pathways to strengthen linkages between schools and community services
work proactively with regional education department staff, school wellbeing teams and other health professionals to engage appropriate mental health support
am responsible for implementing whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing
contribute to the development of larger-scale reform, promoting what works to support students’ mental health and wellbeing.

It is all about building staff and community capacity to support children’s mental health and wellbeing, so they be the best versions of themselves and engage meaningfully in learning. It’s about being proactive, setting up supports and systems.

For further information, please refer to the MHiPS website: https://www.mhips.org.au/

I look forward to speaking further with community and getting stuck into this terrific initiative and work!

Tyler Trevaskis (Mr T)