Foreword

Australia’s first National Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (the Strategy) provides the framework and foundations for lifelong mental health and wellbeing to be built during childhood, with a whole-of-community approach.

Good mental health and wellbeing enables children to reach their full potential, experience fulfilling relationships, and adapt and cope with challenging circumstances. We know that mental health challenges often begin during childhood and if left unattended they can lead to poor outcomes in adulthood. Early intervention and prevention, with a focus on children and their families, is key to improving positive lifelong mental health and wellbeing outcomes.

The Strategy provides a long-term vision for how Australia can support the mental health and wellbeing of all children, improving outcomes by embracing the breadth of challenges and the unique life journey of each child.

The National Mental Health Commission was tasked with developing this Strategy as part of the Australian Government’s Long-Term National Health Plan. This is the first time a mental health and wellbeing strategy has been developed with a focus on children from birth through to 12 years of age, as well as the families and communities that nurture them. The Strategy deliberately takes a child’s rights-based approach, drawing on principles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to ensure all children’s wellbeing needs are considered.

The Strategy uses four focus areas to outline the requirements for an effective system of care for children, and seeks to create a new, shared understanding of the roles of families, communities, services, and educators in promoting and supporting child mental health and wellbeing.

It has been developed with invaluable input from a diverse range of children and young people, alongside their parents and carers. Active consideration has been given to the diversity of environments children live within, and this has seen the Commission engage with and listen to those who are working with children and their families in educational settings, juvenile justice, the out-of-home care system, and the health system.

The insights of those living and working in rural and remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are key components of this Strategy. We thank the hundreds of people who have shared their expertise and insights to assist with the development of this Strategy. Your shared dedication to ensuring the wellbeing of our children provides hope for their future.

In the development of this Strategy, the Commission has considered the recommendations of the 2020 Mental Health Productivity Commission Inquiry Report, the considerable work being completed to revise and refresh the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020, and the priority areas and actions in the National Action Plan for Children and Young People.

As an element of the Australian Government’s commitment to a national approach to mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention, this Strategy provides a further framework for enabling our system to be preventative, compassionate, and person-centred. It has been developed in parallel with the Commission’s work on Vision 2030, a blueprint for a unified system of mental health and suicide prevention that takes a whole-of-community, whole-of-life and person-centred approach to mental health; an approach that is firmly echoed in the principles underpinning this Strategy.

After significant consultation, we are pleased to share the National Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy with the wider community. We look forward to the Strategy’s recommendations becoming synonymous with the national mental health system reforms, and to monitoring Australia’s progress towards building a system that supports, strengthens and values the mental health and wellbeing of all children and their families.