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hello everyone and thank you for joining
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me for the launch of the national
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children's mental health strategy
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2021
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firstly i'd like to acknowledge the
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traditional owners on all the lands on
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which we're meeting today and
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pay my respects to their elders past
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present and emerging
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i'm very happy to be living here on
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wajak nang abuja in perth in western
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australia
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and i'm grateful that this country has
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been so well looked after that i get to
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live here and raise my children
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so this is me i'm from the pilbara
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region in western australia although i
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grew up in perth
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but my homelands are in the pilbara
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region around marble bar and i'm a pelco
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woman
Generational Stories
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and of course knowing who you are and
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where you come from is really important
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to mental health and so are our
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generational stories of our families so
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this is my grandmother and mom and
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this is me with my first child and i
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think that the foundations to our mental
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health actually start here with our
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families so as my grandmother holds my
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mum my mum holds me and i hold my first
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child and this is establishing good
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mental health and wellbeing and
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resilience throughout the generations
Why Focus on Children
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so why is it important to focus on
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infant and children in particular and
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i'm really pleased that the government
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decided to do a 0-12 strategy
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because this is a an area of focus that
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hasn't received a lot of attention in
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recent years
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at this point i also just want to thank
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everyone who's been involved in the
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development of the strategy
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it was a lot of hard work for everyone
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involved and i think that they've done a
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really fantastic job
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so why focus on on children well we know
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and the science is in fact very clear
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that the early years offer both the
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greatest opportunity for development but
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also present a time of considerable risk
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so things really can and do go wrong in
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early childhood and this sets kids on a
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path for poor mental health and
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well-being down the track often not
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manifest until
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the
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youth period or in adulthood but the
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origins of this distress
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actually start in childhood
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so this is a time that we have to focus
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on really building our mental health and
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well-being and our resilience
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if we're going to actually have
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healthy development later on down the
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track
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so we need to focus on building sturdy
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brains through nurturing relationships
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through good experiences that promote
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growth and development through healthy
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environments and through really
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promoting those strong social and
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emotional developing mental milestones
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which are actually critical for our
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development later
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and of course if we do all of that then
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this will establish the foundations for
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well-being and resilience throughout our
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lifespan and if by chance adversity does
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uh we do face adversity later on down
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the track we will be much more able to
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handle these sorts of issues if we've
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got these really strong foundations
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so some of the considerations that we
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also have to think about when we're
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looking at mental health and well-being
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is that most of our mental health
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challenges or disorders actually have
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their origins somewhere in childhood
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sometimes in infancy or in a very early
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childhood most disorders don't really
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just start up in adolescence there are
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some of course that do but for many some
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of their origins or risk factors are
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present early on we also know that there
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are many risk and protective factors
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that we we know about we know how to
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deal with them we know what
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some of the things that will promote the
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protective factors and also some of the
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things that we can do to try and reduce
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risk and we can identify some of this
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within our population
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there's an increasing evidence base for
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really effective interventions from
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infancy right through to adulthood that
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will support healthy development and
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also promote healing and recovery
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and of course if you intervene early
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when the brain is more malleable before
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things have become permanent in terms of
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changes to brain development and
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structure and function
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then this is much easier to intervene at
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this stage so the earlier we intervene
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in life the earlier we intervene into
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stress and in the onset of illness
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the chances for better recovery
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are much much greater so the cost
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benefit for early intervention is
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compelling a small amount of investment
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in childhood to get kids back on track
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is going to yield much better outcomes
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than trying to intervene
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much later down the track when things
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may have caused permanent changes to the
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brain or become entrenched and more
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difficult to shift
Concerns
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of course some of the concerns about the
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service system that have been around for
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some time now is that there has been a
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lack of development and investment in
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clinical services for children
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particularly the under 12s over many
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decades
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there are also very few specialised
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service services that can deal with some
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of the particular issues that develop in
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infants and in young children there are
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lots of gaps in our service system as
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well particularly for those children who
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may have some high risk groups such as
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children in out of home care as well as
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those children who find themselves in
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the juvenile justice system many of
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those children are really at risk for
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later mental health challenges if they
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don't have them already within the
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systems of care they find themselves in
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we also know there are large gaps in
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mental health services in rural and
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remote locations and certainly in some
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of our aboriginal
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communities that
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live in very remote circumstances
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we have currently a very poorly trained
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and fragmented service system we we have
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a lack of staff and development and
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support
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and of course what we've seen is a rapid
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rise in demand for mental health
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services for children and and young
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people in recent years and even more so
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in the covered years and this has far
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exceeded the services capacity to
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actually meet
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any sort of current levels of need
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so we've got a long way to go but
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hopefully this strategy will address
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some of these concerns by getting in
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early having a much stronger
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collaborative approach from primary care
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right through to the specialist service
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system
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and promote that sort of
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focus on children's mental health and
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well-being for everybody
Summary
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so just to leave you with something a
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little bit more positive we know that if
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we give children the best start the
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right start in life and development then
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they are going to grow into happy
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healthy adults
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and although we
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have many stories to tell wouldn't it be
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nice if we could tell the best story of
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all and that is we put in the investment
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that was required we built the systems
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of care that we needed and it didn't
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matter who you were or where you lived
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or who your family was
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every child got the chance to achieve
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the best possible well-being
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and that would be a great story to tell
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thank you
