Submission on Draft National Guidelines for including mental health and wellbeing in early childhood health checks

This is ARACY’s submission on Draft National Guidelines for including mental health and wellbeing in early childhood health checks.

Overall, ARACY supports the guidelines and commends the National Mental Health Commission for responding to the outcomes of earlier consultations. In particular, ARACY is pleased to see the scope of the guidelines has broadened from mental health to include all aspects of a child’s life and that the guidelines emphasise a holistic, child-centred and strengths-based approach.

ARACY’s key recommendation is the inclusion of a fifth theme, focused on providing a skilled workforce. Without additional training, practitioners are unlikely to be able to shift their practice to consider the child and family in a holistic and strengths-focused way or to take a collaborative approach in partnership with families.