Danielle Derkson – Principal, Eaglehawk Secondary College: At Eaglehawk secondary college, we support a large majority of our young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Lots of young people who come to us with a range of different mental health needs. The Mental Health Practitioner is able to support us to meet the needs of those young people who come in with quite complex mental health issues.
Adam Johnson – Mental Health Practitioner, Eaglehawk Secondary College: My name's Adam Johnson. My background discipline is occupational therapy. I work at Eaglehawk Secondary College three days a week, and I work at Pyramid Hill College one day a week. What attracted me to the school setting, was that it is that period in a person's life where you can have a real impact and provide early intervention. Just being able to get in and help them at that key point in their life, can sometimes help set up good habits and routines that'll take them forward into adulthood.
Kate Taylor – Mental Health Coordinator, Loddon Campaspe Area: So the role of the Mental Health Practitioner is different to the role of other wellbeing staff within the schools as it's a targeted, more specific intervention. It's specialised. And for any one-on-one work or small group targeted intervention, parental consent is required. And they've got that specialised background for support for other wellbeing staff and students.
Nicole Ellerton – Student Support Services Coordinator: There's lots of great things about having Adam here. One, he gets to do some direct one-to-one counselling for those students who absolutely need it and can't get that support through external services for whatever reason. It's fantastic to have a secondary consult person on our team to flag things with, or to say ‘hey, what do you reckon about this?’ Also great for safety plan support as well.
And particularly for us, we're really keen to have an Occupational Therapist because through the Department of Ed, we do have access to a Psychologist and Social Worker but having an occupational therapist who's asking us questions about things we hadn't considered before, has been invaluable.
Adam Johnson: As an Occupational Therapist, I feel I've been able to apply my skills to the mental health practitioner role, in that I've done a lot of up skilling around sensory modulation and how that can be used to help self-regulate and get in the right mind frame for engaging in your education. Occupational therapy also has quite a big focus on habits, routines, and those kinds of things. So, ‘this is my routine. I can do this to maybe improve how I'm going on a day-to-day basis.’
Danielle Derkson: The difference the Mental Health Practitioners made in our school, is having another member of the team, and the more diverse we can have our team, the better equipped we are at meeting the needs. Whether it's triaging young people and consulting with staff on what the best supports are available, is just having another resource that can be utilised to meet the needs of our young people.
Lindsay – Student: They're very open. They're always giving great tips to help you cope and just make you feel a lot more calm or relaxed. Personally, it's helped me a lot because usually I'm not really open about my feelings. I usually just carry them on my shoulders, and I don't open up to anyone. They've helped me a lot more than I could ever imagine. And it's just the benefits in my learning and outside of school and everything.
Krys – Student: What wasn't possible, this is one of the things, was letting my emotions out. I couldn't…I was never confident in myself. I've always put myself down, but now I've got my confidence and I'm happy. I'm positive going into the classroom. I'm positive talking to the teachers, the other students. I always think to myself how lucky I am to have that support in my life, to have people be there for me when no one was before. And yeah, I'm grateful for everyone that's been around. So yeah, I'm really happy for it.
Adam Johnson: I would say, look, if you're passionate about mental health, and about making a real change in the lives of kids regardless of where they've come from, I think it's a great role to step into. You know, I've got a lot of people around me that are passionate about why they're here every day. And I think that does drive me in my career and my personal life and what I want to do.
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