Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the Australian Government investing in KidsMatter Early Childhood?
The mental health and wellbeing of Australian children is an important and legitimate concern of the Government. Research has shown that many mental health problems among adults have their origins in childhood. A child in good mental health is more likely to have good prospects in later life, performing better in education, employment and the development of relationships.
Australian research indicates that between four per cent and 14 per cent of children aged from 18 months to three years have mental health problems such as anxiety, social withdrawal and high levels of aggression. These figures are similar to those reported for preschoolers and infants in international studies.
There is a solid body of evidence indicating that helping children build resilience leads to better mental health. In addition, if children with mental health difficulties are identified early and their condition managed, they will be less likely to have poor mental health outcomes as adults.
What funding is the Government committing to the initiative?
On 5 October 2009 the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP, announced funding of $6.5 million (GST inclusive) over three years to develop KidsMatter Early Childhood and conduct an Australia-wide pilot.
What is KidsMatter Early Childhood?
KidsMatter Early Childhood is a national mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative specifically developed for early childhood services. KidsMatter Early Childhood provides training and support to early childhood services to help them make a positive difference in young children’s mental health during the most important developmental period of a child’s life. The initiative also supports and involves families, early childhood professionals, as well as a range of community and health professionals to foster children’s mental health and wellbeing.
Who benefits from KidsMatter Early Childhood?
Investing in early childhood programs can have a lasting impact for children, families and the broader community, resulting in potential long-term economic benefits for society as a whole.
KidsMatter Early Childhood will benefit children, parents and carers and staff involved with long day care centres and preschools across Australia. KidsMatter Early Childhood helps children strengthen their resilience to cope with change, manage their emotions and improve their relationships and therefore build on their capacity to thrive in the years ahead. It will reinforce good mental health among all children and lead to the prevention and earlier identification of mental health difficulties as they arise.
How does KidsMatter Early Childhood work?
KidsMatter Early Childhood provides a framework to enable long day care and preschool teachers and staff, parents and carers to work together to create settings that better support children’s social and emotional wellbeing needs. The framework focuses on four key areas:
- creating a sense of community
- developing children’s social and emotional skills
- working with parents and carers
- helping children who are experiencing mental health difficulties.
Following an Expression of Interest process, 110 long day care centres and preschools from all states and territories across Australia have been selected to participate in piloting the KidsMatter Early Childhood initiative throughout 2010 and 2011. The pilot includes the participation of 11,082 children and 1,386 staff. 17% of staff hold an Early Childhood Education Degree.
KidsMatter Early Childhood Facilitators are engaged across all states and territories to work collaboratively with pilot sites. The Facilitators provide expert advice, training, information and resources to pilot sites regarding the implementation of KidsMatter Early Childhood. The Facilitators support the pilot sites to develop their capacity to promote children’s mental health and wellbeing and to respond effectively to the mental health concerns of the children in their care.
Each pilot site will establish a Leadership Team to plan and oversee the implementation of the framework of KidsMatter Early Childhood. A key role of the Leadership Team, with the support of the Facilitator, is to develop, implement and continuously review a KidsMatter Early Childhood Action Plan. This is called the Plan-Do-Review process. The Action Plan will be delivered through the provision of evidence-based learning opportunities and resources for staff and parents and carers to enhance their capacity to support the children in their care.
What will the KidsMatter Early Childhood Action Plan cover?
Although each Action Plan is unique to the setting and tailored to the needs of the children that attend the centre or preschool, the plan will sequentially build on the four key areas over the life of the project. The plan will include strategies to promote mental health, prevent and/or intervene early with mental health difficulties, such as suggesting ways to:
- implement practices that provide a stable, nurturing and protective environment that encourages good mental health;
- support children to develop social and emotional skills and provide opportunities for children to practice these;
- enhance staff knowledge of child development and capacity to distinguish between normal childhood development and possible mental health difficulties;
- provide information to parents and carers about normal childhood development and possible mental health difficulties, how to recognise these and where to seek help when necessary;
- develop protocols to assist staff to recognise children who may be experiencing early signs of mental health difficulties and assist them and their families; and
- identify appropriate referral agencies that are able to support children with mental health difficulties and developing policies and procedures for ensuring timely and appropriate referral.
What is the evidence to support KidsMatter Early Childhood?
Child and infant mental health is recognised as a field of inquiry in the international research literature and has received increased attention in recent decades. There is a growing body of international and Australian research supporting the existence and identification of mental health difficulties in early childhood (usually defined as birth – 8 years old).
Research indicates that promoting positive mental health occurs particularly through warm, responsive interactions with significant people in the early years. Positive mental health has many benefits such as assisting brain development; improving learning; helping children to develop the capacity to experience, regulate and express emotion; to form close secure, satisfying relationships; and to have the confidence to explore and discover their world. Addressing mental health difficulties during early childhood means that concerning behaviours have had less time to develop or become entrenched and reduces the risk of ongoing issues throughout life.
The external evaluation of the KidsMatter Primary initiative clearly showed that people working with children can implement evidence-based mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention practices. As a result the children (particularly those who had been experiencing mental health difficulties) benefited. There were also clear benefits for staff, parents and carers. An evaluation of the KidsMatter Early Childhood pilot is planned to be completed by mid 2012.
