Thriving communities promote positive child mental health. Positive child mental health promotes thriving communities.
Local government and other community services have a responsibility to keep the child in sight in the context of their work. There are opportunities in their interactions with children and families to identify a need, and/or provide basic information and support.
To do this, organisation supports need to be put in place to embed child-aware and parent-sensitive practices. This may look like all staff developing an understanding of:
- strategies to support children’s mental health and development through programs, services and infrastructure
- how to involve children and families in decision-making; and
- ways to improve child mental health literacy in the community through organisational communication channels.
For more information on engaging child and family partners in service development to support practice, visit our Child and Family Partnerships toolkit.
The Emerging Minds: National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health supports organisation leaders to promote and strengthen children’s mental health through the work of their organisation and their role in the community.
Changing structures to support children and families within an organisation is an iterative and ongoing journey. While this may require big policy and cultural shifts, you can make a difference by starting small and creating incremental change, building on what already exists within your organisation.
The following resources will show you how to approach the journey and what to consider when creating change.
How to create organisational change – A process driven by organisation leaders is needed to embed change at all levels of an organisation. In this resource, the change process is divided into three repeating phases:
- Gather information.
- Make plans.
- Take action.
What to consider – This resource explores the three core areas that are foundational to create long-lasting change:
- Organisational ownership.
- Supportive operational environment.
- Staff equipped with skills, knowledge and support to practice.
