Kirshy McAinch, Principal, Bendigo Special Developmental School:
So at Bendigo Special Developmental School, we're a regional school for students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Unfortunately, the statistics are very clear that students with disabilities often face a higher level of mental health conditions and are at risk for mental health issues. We are so grateful to have a mental health practitioner onsite here working alongside us every day to help us address those challenges that arise for all our students in, you know, a systematic therapeutic way that supports their access to learning.
Drew Barrett, Mental Health Practitioner, Bendigo Special Developmental School:
My name's Drew Barrett. My background is a social worker and I'm the mental health practitioner at Bendigo Special Developmental School. It looks a little bit different each day, but mainly I'm here to support the mental health and wellbeing of students. Students can come to me for various issues. It might be anxiety related, emotional regulation, support, and a lot of grief and loss too, but I also work a little bit with our families in the wellbeing side of things and definitely with our staff as well.
Danielle Koning, Mental Health Manager, North Western Victoria Region:
They get to do universal work, so that's working right across the school, working with community, with parents, with students, with staff, about building their capacity and connecting into the community into the school. Also, we provide a bit more intensive support for students sometimes, those with, you know, mild to moderate mental health needs, and that can be group programmes or support services that better support students with identified needs. And there's also some individual work that happens with young people, so that might be individual counselling, it might be risk management, or it might be connection to community agencies and supports.
Drew Barrett:
What attracted me to the mental health practitioner role was the opportunity that you get to be able to build relationships with young people and that opportunity to support them to learn and build their capacity around wellbeing strategies and how they can support themselves moving forward. I think what really excited me about the role is that opportunity to be able to do something about it and to help support our students to get the tools that they need to support their own mental health and wellbeing.
Drew Barrett:
Is it nice to have someone to talk to at school?
Mollie, Student, Bendigo Special Developmental School:
Yeah.
Drew Barrett:
How might you be feeling if you come to see me sometimes?
Mollie:
Upset.
Drew Barrett:
Is it good maybe when you get upset to have someone to come and talk to?
Mollie:
Yeah.
Drew Barrett:
What do you like about working with me?
Mollie:
Dropping anchor, close your eyes, and you think. It's helping me calm down.
Kirshy McAinch:
Having Drew and the mental health practitioner in our space allows us to get real-time, up-to-date evidence base. We can use his knowledge to support that in a whole school and systematic way so that we are all building our knowledge about how to support wellbeing and we're able to use his skill and knowledge to support our teaching and learning to really get to the heart of what we know has the biggest impact on learning and wellbeing for all of our students.
Kim Jones, Respectful Relationships Coordinator, Bendigo Special Developmental School:
Having the mental health practitioner within our school has provided a wonderful opportunity for us to really just send our focus into curriculum and teaching and really what we're meant to be here doing. It's just a wonderful addition to our school.
Drew Barrett:
A big part of the role has been doing a bit of capacity building sessions with staff to give them as much knowledge as possible around how to look after their own mental health and make sure that they can be as prepared as can be to take on the day ahead and be the best versions of themselves for our students.
My social work background, where it's helped me within this role, I think, is that navigation and the coordination of the external services with our families. They play a big role in the mental health outcomes of our students. Making sure that they can access the services they need to is really important. That ability to build rapport with both families and students and making those good community connections I think has really helped me in good stead.
In my three years here, we have seen some changes in help-seeking behaviours. Prior, there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it or there wasn't someone they could seek out. But to see young people and our students actually ask for help and want to connect with the mental health practitioner I think is pretty special. And we've had experiences of past students, students who have left, talk to us about some of the strategies they've been able to take away from school and implement into their life beyond school, which is, they're the real wins.
I think the most rewarding part of it is to be able to build really meaningful connections with our young people and try and make a difference as best you can. So for me, that's, yeah, the pinnacle of it all.
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