Provide support within and beyond the early childhood service or school
As an educator, you may need to provide appropriate and timely support to a child or young person experiencing a mental health issue or condition.
In this event, you need to understand your role and the role of others within your learning community in providing this support.
Learning communities can establish pathways for children, young people and their families to access mental health support. Educators can assist children, young people and their families in navigating these pathways and provide ongoing support while external assistance is provided.
This module identifies a range of possible support pathways. It demonstrates how you can collaborate with colleagues, children, young people and their families, and potentially external services to access these pathways. It also highlights the adjustments you can put in place to support the child or young person’s needs.
Who is this module for?
This module is for educators wanting to explore how to provide appropriate support for children, young people and their families who are seeking help for a potential mental health issue or condition.
It is the third of three modules in the Early Support domain. The Notice, Inquire and Provide modules are designed to be completed in order as the knowledge in later modules builds on the information in the earlier ones.
The Notice module provides information on recognising behaviours that might indicate the early signs of mental health issues or conditions and guidance on tools that may assist in recording these observations.
The Inquire module elaborates on how educators can use their observations to talk to children, young people and their families about these concerns.
To understand the entire journey, you’ll need to work through not only this module but also the preceding modules within this Be You Professional Learning domain. Be You recommends completing the entire Early Support domain before taking action.
Accreditation
This module contributes to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional development hours, addressing the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In the ACT, completing Provide will contribute 90 minutes of ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional learning addressing standard 4.4.2 Maintain Student Safety of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In NSW, completing the Provide module will contribute 90 minutes of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) accredited professional development in the priority area of Student/child Mental health addressing standard descriptor 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. Educators can complete modules individually and receive accredited hours.
All registered teachers in every state and territory must ensure they have added their teacher registration number and state/territory to the My Profile page.
Please see FAQs for more details on the Be You Professional Learning upload process and time frames in which participants can expect their learning to be recorded with their relevant organisation.
Learning outcomes
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- appreciate the role of educators providing mental health support to children and young people
- understand the stepped care approach to mental health support and the barriers to seeking support
- use a whole learning community approach to provide early support for children and young people's mental health and wellbeing
- take steps to prepare yourself to provide mental health support to children and young people.
Using the Notepad
If you’re a PC or Mac user, there’s a notepad feature for you to record notes, actions or discussion points for each topic. If you’re sharing a computer with your team, your notes will be available for everyone to view. If you wish to keep your notes private, please save and delete your notes each time you finish your session. There’s more information in the Notepad user guide on the right.
Using this module
The Be You Professional Learning modules are designed to be used flexibly in the way best suited for you and your learning community.
Consider one section at a time within the modules. At the end of each page, you will be prompted to explore additional resources within Be You that relate to the content. It is suggested that you complete one module at a time and use these prompts to identify future opportunities for learning.
You will be prompted to take breaks throughout; this can aid your learning and retention of the content.
Once completed, you can further your learning by using the reflection questions provided throughout the module. You can use these questions in ways that suit your learning community’s ways of working and broader professional development. There are also resources, such as the Be You Action Plan and Be You Actions Catalogue, that can be used to further facilitate these discussions.