Mental health support for students

Secondary students at Yarrawonga College P-12 will now have access to vital mental health support at school with the roll out of mental health practitioners to every Victorian government secondary and specialist school now complete.

Member for Northern Victoria, Mark Gepp MP last week announced five school campuses in the Goulburn Valley will receive funding to recruit a mental health practitioner from the start of Term Four – as part of the $51.2 million Mental Health Practitioners initiative, which has been finalised a year earlier than originally committed to in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This investment is about ensuring that students in the Goulburn Valley have the mental health supports in place to help them achieve their very best at school and in life,” Mr Gepp said.

Funding will enable schools in the Goulburn Valley to employ a practitioner for up to five days a week – with more than 250 suitably qualified and registered mental health practitioners already working across the state’s secondary schools;

• Cobram Secondary College - 0.3 FTE

• Greater Shepparton College - 1.9 FTE

• Nathalia Secondary College - 0.2 FTE

• Numurkah Secondary College - 0.2 FTE

• Yarrawonga College P-12 - Pinniger Street Campus - 0.4 FTE.

The mental health practitioners can include psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and mental health nurses delivering the unique needs of each student cohort.