From a Governance perspective, this is the time of year that FRSA’s Board nomination and election process takes place. I can advise that the FRSA Board Director nominations process has closed delivering an uncontested result with all four incumbent FRSA Board Directors whose two year term was expiring at the next AGM being returned to the Board for a further two years. Congratulations to Glenda Devlin, Serge Sardo, Leanne Strommen and Allison Wainwright! They will be formally appointed as FRSA Board Directors at the FRSA AGM being held virtually on 19 November, 2021 at 12:00pm (AEDT) – more information below.
Following from World Mental Health Day on 10 October, the Australian Government released the National Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
The Strategy’s focus on the importance of early support and prevention and the role of family and community in children’s lives has been rightly applauded. The Strategy emphasises the importance of empowering families to support the mental health and wellbeing of children as well as community-based approaches, recognising that social and economic conditions impact mental health and wellbeing.
Our sector delivers a range of children, parenting and family support services and is, of course, keenly aware that community interventions and early work with new parents and with young children is integral to building protective factors in those children – particularly kids in high risk/vulnerable communities. We know that poor child-parent attachment, childhood trauma, and sustained parental conflict, for example, present risks to child development and mental health and may lead to problems down the track such as mental illness, substance abuse, school failure and so on.
I certainly look forward to opportunities for our sector to be better recognised and therefore able to play a more integrated role with the health and education sectors to support the mental health and wellbeing of children. In particular, I point to an important service, recently moved under the auspices of the Department of Social Service’s Family and Children (FaC) Activity, that receives little public attention for the vital role it plays offering family-based mental health interventions in a system that is largely geared towards standalone treatment of the ‘individual’. This service is Family Mental Health Support Services (FMHSS), which is currently delivered across close to 200 sites in Australia.
FMHSS providers work with children and young people with the support of their families and carers and provide a flexible range of non-clinical mental health support services that are tailored to the needs of each child, young person and family.
On a different but not unrelated point, it is also National Carers Week. So many in our community are in a caring role – in many cases this is for children or other family members with mental health concerns. There are currently 2.65 million Australians who provide unpaid care and support to family members and friends! This is truly something to recognise and celebrate.
With the country opening up and coming out of lockdown we’re looking forward to the FRSA National Conference next May. A reminder the Conference abstract process is open until the end of the month.
By Jackie Brady
