Kai Pukarinen, Principal, Naranga Special School:
Naranga School caters for students with a mild intellectual disability. There is a very high demand for mental health and wellbeing services in the school. Part of that is linked to our students' disability, but for many students, it's linked to their life experiences. And for many of these students, it's their life experiences that pose the biggest barrier to their engagement with learning.
Georgia Major, Mental Health Practitioner, Naranga Special School:
My name is Georgia. My background is in educational and developmental psychology, and I currently work as the mental health practitioner at Naranga Special School. So my role as the mental health practitioner really involves any mental health activities that support the students across the school.
My day may involve going to meetings, care team meetings, meetings with leadership, the other therapists, meeting with carers and parents. I will likely be involved in one-to-one counselling sessions and running small group programmes throughout the term. I might meet with teachers to consult on particular students or mental health concerns that are coming up across their classroom. Or I might be in the classroom itself, helping rolling out some of our whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing
Kathryn Heal, Mental Health Manager, South Eastern Victoria Region:
Here at Naranga School, the MHP has been an invaluable asset to the team, and having Georgia here has provided the space for her to be able to pick up those mental health concerns for students and really support them with that and not let them be missed. And although she's working one-on-one with students in one-on-one counselling, she's also been provided those really great opportunities to work with identified cohorts such as the Dungeons and Dragons group. So it's been a really fun addition for the kids to be able to have her here and supporting that process.
Michelle Spence, Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, Naranga Special School:
A mental health practitioner can ensure that students are actually feeling like they belong, having a voice, actually settling into the education process with confidence and competence. It's subtle, it's advocacy, it's companionship, it's somebody bearing witness to their learning journey.
Georgia Major:
I enjoy so many things about working at Naranga. But one of the things I enjoy most is really being part of the school community. I think it's a really unique position to see the kids every single day, not just once a week or once a fortnight that I might see them, you know, in a clinic setting. I get to see them out in the yard and check in with them, see how they're going. You get to see them in a really unique light, and it means that I get a really deeper connection with them and a deeper understanding of them and then how to support them as well.
Georgia Major:
Do you like coming to see me?
Ruby, Student, Naranga Special School:
Yes.
Georgia Major:
What do you like about coming to see me?
Ruby:
Talk about like in private, like private stuff. Or like emotions, like what your favourite part about school.
Georgia Major:
What do you think I help students with?
Ruby:
If they're angry, talk about it.
Georgia Major:
And how does that make you feel?
Ruby:
Good.
Michelle Spence:
The amount of dual diagnosis that we would have in a special school setting is under reported and undertreated. So where a child would normally present with depression or anxiety, often that's masked by an intellectual disability. Now that we have the mental health practitioner in the school, that mask is being revealed. And we've actually had children who have previously not been able to speak out, step up and say, "I need help".
Georgia Major:
One of the biggest benefits of working as a mental health practitioner at a special school in particular is that I was coming into an already established therapy team. So I'm very lucky to be able to work with another psychologist, a wellbeing officer, a speech pathologist, and an OT. So we are all constantly collaborating and bringing each other's professional perspectives into the discussion, which means we all learn and grow together. But we can also provide the best possible support we can to our students through that framework.
Michelle Spence:
She has a way of empathising with our students that really gives them voice. And so when she comes to our meetings, she's not just a health practitioner, she's also the voice for these young people who want to be heard.
Georgia Major:
What attracted me to the role of a mental health practitioner was being able to work within a school, but I was also really interested in the focus across the three tiers. So not only being able to provide that one-to-one individual support, but also knowing that the focus was on small groups and the classroom and the whole school approach to mental health as well.
To someone applying for a mental health practitioner role, I would really get them to consider applying for a role in a special school. I think it's a really unique setting. I find this job incredibly rewarding. I previously worked in private practise, and I get to see my skills really utilised a lot more in this role, and I get to have a huge impact on the kids that I see every day.Kai Pukarinen, Principal, Naranga Special School:
Naranga School caters for students with a mild intellectual disability. There is a very high demand for mental health and wellbeing services in the school. Part of that is linked to our students' disability, but for many students, it's linked to their life experiences. And for many of these students, it's their life experiences that pose the biggest barrier to their engagement with learning.
Georgia Major, Mental Health Practitioner, Naranga Special School:
My name is Georgia. My background is in educational and developmental psychology, and I currently work as the mental health practitioner at Naranga Special School. So my role as the mental health practitioner really involves any mental health activities that support the students across the school.
My day may involve going to meetings, care team meetings, meetings with leadership, the other therapists, meeting with carers and parents. I will likely be involved in one-to-one counselling sessions and running small group programmes throughout the term. I might meet with teachers to consult on particular students or mental health concerns that are coming up across their classroom. Or I might be in the classroom itself, helping rolling out some of our whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing
Kathryn Heal, Mental Health Manager, South Eastern Victoria Region:
Here at Naranga School, the MHP has been an invaluable asset to the team, and having Georgia here has provided the space for her to be able to pick up those mental health concerns for students and really support them with that and not let them be missed. And although she's working one-on-one with students in one-on-one counselling, she's also been provided those really great opportunities to work with identified cohorts such as the Dungeons and Dragons group. So it's been a really fun addition for the kids to be able to have her here and supporting that process.
Michelle Spence, Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader, Naranga Special School:
A mental health practitioner can ensure that students are actually feeling like they belong, having a voice, actually settling into the education process with confidence and competence. It's subtle, it's advocacy, it's companionship, it's somebody bearing witness to their learning journey.
Georgia Major:
I enjoy so many things about working at Naranga. But one of the things I enjoy most is really being part of the school community. I think it's a really unique position to see the kids every single day, not just once a week or once a fortnight that I might see them, you know, in a clinic setting. I get to see them out in the yard and check in with them, see how they're going. You get to see them in a really unique light, and it means that I get a really deeper connection with them and a deeper understanding of them and then how to support them as well.
Georgia Major:
Do you like coming to see me?
Ruby, Student, Naranga Special School:
Yes.
Georgia Major:
What do you like about coming to see me?
Ruby:
Talk about like in private, like private stuff. Or like emotions, like what your favourite part about school.
Georgia Major:
What do you think I help students with?
Ruby:
If they're angry, talk about it.
Georgia Major:
And how does that make you feel?
Ruby:
Good.
Michelle Spence:
The amount of dual diagnosis that we would have in a special school setting is under reported and undertreated. So where a child would normally present with depression or anxiety, often that's masked by an intellectual disability. Now that we have the mental health practitioner in the school, that mask is being revealed. And we've actually had children who have previously not been able to speak out, step up and say, "I need help".
Georgia Major:
One of the biggest benefits of working as a mental health practitioner at a special school in particular is that I was coming into an already established therapy team. So I'm very lucky to be able to work with another psychologist, a wellbeing officer, a speech pathologist, and an OT. So we are all constantly collaborating and bringing each other's professional perspectives into the discussion, which means we all learn and grow together. But we can also provide the best possible support we can to our students through that framework.
Michelle Spence:
She has a way of empathising with our students that really gives them voice. And so when she comes to our meetings, she's not just a health practitioner, she's also the voice for these young people who want to be heard.
Georgia Major:
What attracted me to the role of a mental health practitioner was being able to work within a school, but I was also really interested in the focus across the three tiers. So not only being able to provide that one-to-one individual support, but also knowing that the focus was on small groups and the classroom and the whole school approach to mental health as well.
To someone applying for a mental health practitioner role, I would really get them to consider applying for a role in a special school. I think it's a really unique setting. I find this job incredibly rewarding. I previously worked in private practise, and I get to see my skills really utilised a lot more in this role, and I get to have a huge impact on the kids that I see every day.
Updated