Maitland high school teachers will have access to online resources and personal support to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of students across the city.
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With one in five Australian secondary school teachers not confident in handling mental health issues in their students, beyondblue has redeveloped its MindMatters initiative.
About 50 per cent of the 600 teachers and principals questioned by independent social research agency – TNS Social Research – said the demands of teaching meant they didn’t have time to attend to the mental health needs of their students.
Earlier this year, St Joseph’s Primary School in East Maitland adopted a KidsMatter framework in response to the growing number of children living with mental health issues.
“One of the biggest issues we’ve noticed in the past few years is the increase of children with heightened levels of anxiety,” principal Anthony Weir said.
“Children are anxious about being at school, anxious at coming to school, anxious about issues at home and we need to address these issues now before they get to high school.”
According to KidsMatter, evidence suggests that nearly half of all mental health problems begin before age 14.
In later childhood, it has been estimated that one in seven school-aged children had a mental health problem including anxiety, depression and behaviour problems, but only one in four receive the help they need.
