One of Australia’s leading mental health organisations says this week is a good time to remember mental health issues are not limited to adults.
The Hunter Institute of Mental Health has released a federally funded guide for staff to look for early signs of mental illness in the 1 million Australian children in childcare.
The institute’s director, Jaelea Skehan, said early detection is key when it comes to mental illness.
“The earliest possible time in which we can identify if difficulties are occurring, the better off the health and wellbeing is going to be,” she said.
“Not just of children and families, but of communities across Australia.”
The guide, titled Connections, will be distributed in childcare centres across Australia.
The minister responsible for childcare, Sussan Ley, said childcare workers are often in a good position to respond early when children are experiencing mental illness.
“The educators that have been here for years know these children extremely well,” she said.
“They’re the best placed people to say, ‘Something’s not right today, what do we need to do?’, and sensitively look at the issue with the family.”
The guide helps workers identify when children might be experiencing mental illness, showing signs of anxiety or depression, or suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Of course, separating normal behaviour from patterns that might need special attention is not easy.
That is especially true when telltale signs include defiance, tantrums and overactivity – not exactly rare behaviour in children.
Across Australia, an estimated 1 million children up to age eight regularly attend childcare.
Marina Bugden, the director of the KU Phillip’s Park Children’s Centre in Sydney, said the guide will help workers differentiate between normal activities and troubling patterns.
“We’re looking for repetitive behaviour, behaviour we don’t normally see in children of that age, or just signs that a child’s behaviour has possibly changed,” she said.
The Hunter Institute said the aim of guide is not to make therapists.
Instead, it said, it will give staff confidence to make sure everything is done to provide for the well being of children in childcare.