Kealy anxious over program wait

W“Time out of the classroom and away from friends has been devastating for our kids’ mental wellbeing. They’re overwhelmed by just how hard it already is to catch up on two lost years of learning” – Emma Kealy

immera politician and Victoria’s shadow representative for mental health Emma Kealy fears a State Government project to boost mental-health and wellbeing support in schools will take too long to introduce.

Ms Kealy, Member for Lowan, said two years was too long for parts of Victoria to wait for statewide services under the government’s Schools Mental Health Fund Menu.

Education and Mental Health Minister James Merlino announced last week the government would roll out the fund to all government schools, starting in regional Victoria in mid2022 and extending across the state by 2024.

He invited service providers in the student mental-health and wellbeing sector to sign up to deliver the scheme.

“We want all Victorians to have access to the tools they need to be happy and resilient – and that’s why we’re bolstering mental-health and wellbeing support at schools right across Victoria,” he said.

The new menu is designed to boost mental-health support at Victorian schools to ensure children have access to a suite of mental-health tools to thrive at school and life. It is in response to a Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

The new ‘menu’ also underpins the government’s $200-million Schools Mental Health Fund to allow schools to select a variety of programs.

It released an interim menu last year.

Ms Kealy said too many Victorian children were suffering increasing levels of anxiety and emotional stress ‘now’ and addressing the issue was already five years too late.

“Time out of the classroom and away from friends has been devastating for our kids’ mental wellbeing,” she said.

“They’re overwhelmed by just how hard it already is to catch up on two lost years of learning.”

Ms Kealy said under-resourcing of the mental-health workforce had emerged as the number-one issue facing the sector. She said Labor governments, in control for the past 19 years, had ‘ignored dozens of reports that had mapped out solutions and immediate action to recruit more workers’.

“The pandemic has made the problems in Victoria’s broken mental-health system worse,” she said.

“We’re now three years into the Royal Commission’s mental-health reforms, and yet Victorian Labor has ignored the majority of interim recommendations which were related to the urgent need to build Victoria’s mental-health workforce.”