Mental health training to be mandatory for NSW teachers from 2021

Every school teacher in NSW will be given mandatory mental health training to stop vulnerable kids falling through the cracks, in response to The Sunday Telegraph’s Can We Talk campaign.

Every teacher in NSW will be trained to better understand students’ mental health and stop vulnerable kids falling through the cracks.

From next year it will be mandatory for teachers from public, private and Catholic schools to be taught mental health as part of their on-the-job training.

It is a win for The Sunday Telegraph’s Can We Talk campaign, which has called for more mental health resources at our schools in response to alarming rates of youth suicide.

The new mental health training will not increase teachers’ workload or burden of care, but it will better equip them to listen to struggling students, refer them on to appropriate care and help avoid more tragedies.

Teachers will be required to sit mental health courses as part of an overhaul of the 100 hours of training teachers must complete every five years, which will also include new courses dealing with disability, the curriculum and Aboriginal education.

Claudia Neale suicided, aged 18, in August 2020. Picture: Supplied

Ethan suicided in November 2019. Picture: Supplied

Parents Matt and Fiona Neale, who lost their 18-year-old daughter Claudia to suicide in August, were heartened more teachers would know how to recognise and handle students showing signs of mental ill-health.

“Teachers are usually the first port of call when it comes to mental health matters,” they said.

“If teachers have that training, there might not be kids who slip through the cracks.

“It is the subtle skills that can help teachers identify behaviours. In the back of their minds teachers would be questioning what they could say and be unsure about how to address it.

“But if they have the tools to identify it and then approach the student to get them to open up, then that dialogue is invaluable.”

A recent poll of more than 5000 school teachers conducted by the NSW Teachers Federation revealed 93 per cent wanted more training so they can better understand their students’ mental health.

The Ponds High School in north west Sydney is proof teachers with the proper training can better identify students silently suffering from mental ill-health.

The Ponds High School PDHPE teacher Kate Blissett trains fellow teachers in mental health. Picture: Brett Costello

The school’s Personal Development, Health and Physical Education teacher Kate Blissett has been running courses that have given teachers more confidence to start a conversation with students whose behaviour has changed.

“If we can equip teachers with the right skills, they are able to look after students’ wellbeing better and approach mental ill-health in a calm and controlled manner,” Ms Blissett said.

“We don’t need to rely on school counsellors as the only fix, but of course teachers know when is the right time for the counsellor to take over.

“This year students have been struggling with anxiety, insecurities surrounding of COVID-19, and academic pressures of living up to their parents’ expectations.

“Mental health training has allowed our teachers to recognise anxiety for what it is and so we see more of it.

“Teachers then have strategies to deal with students’ mental ill-health, such as scripts to follow, the right places to refer kids and how to explain to students they can self-refer to a counsellor.”

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell will direct the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to commission leading experts to draft the mental health courses for teachers.

“We need to make sure that teachers and staff can identify students who need support,” Ms Mitchell said.

“That is why I have asked NESA to create a new professional development policy, ensuring all teachers in the state have mental health support knowledge.

“Ensuring teachers have the knowledge and confidence to identify when a student needs help, enables the community and school support to then wrap around the student.

“This will save lives and strengthen student support in our schools.”

The Sunday Telegraph is still calling on the state government to increase the number of school counsellors to at least one for every 500 students, which was agreed to in 2018 but never reached.

CAN WE TALK CAMPAIGN WINS

* Secured compulsory mental health training for all NSW teachers by 2026

* Secured $46.5m statewide to roll out 100 “Wellbeing and Health In-Reach Nurses” in schools over next four years.

* Saved the headspace Youth Early Psychosis Program from funding cuts.

* Dramatically increased youth mental health resources operating at Grafton in northern NSW, including the opening of headspace Grafton in 2017.

* Conducted numerous youth mental health forums in Sydney and regional NSW to improve mental health awareness and increase funding.