National Guidelines for including mental health and wellbeing in Early Childhood Health Checks
Mental health concerns often begin during childhood. We also know that supporting children’s experiences, health, and development in the first 2,000 days of life is critical.
The Department of Health and Aged Care asked the Commission to develop the National Guidelines to include mental health and wellbeing in Early Childhood Health Checks (for children 0-5 years).
All states and territories include wellbeing milestones in their early childhood health checks. However, when and how wellbeing is explored varies. Introducing National Guidelines supports national consistency. The National Guidelines aim to help children early, and to allow families to get timely support and advice.
The National Guidelines are not clinical guidelines or practice standards. They do not prescribe screening or assessment tools for children's mental health. The draft National Guidelines do not include significant detail regarding implementation because this will be a matter for the Department of Health and Aged Care.
Background
To develop the National Guidelines, an extensive national consultation was undertaken. This included:
Environmental scanning:
A review of research, data and evidence.
Analysis of existing work relating to wellbeing in early childhood health checks.
Consultation with Commonwealth, state, and territory governments.
Engagement with early childhood policy and practice experts.
National consultation - An online survey, workshops, and interviews. Participants included:
parents, families, and carers
GPs, nurses, and health workers
early childhood educators
Commonwealth and state and territory government representatives
service providers
peak bodies and professional associations.
A summary of the methodology and findings from the national consultation is available here
Project Advisory Group
A project Advisory Group has overseen the development of the National Guidelines. The Co-chairs of the Advisory Group are the Chair of the National Mental Health Commission’s Advisory Board, Professor Ngiare Brown, and the National Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds.
A full list of Advisory Group members is available here.
Public consultation
The National Guidelines are for health practitioners, service providers and state and territory governments. There are four key themes in the draft National Guidelines:
Taking a broad and expanded view of children’s mental health and wellbeing
Creating the conditions for access
Ensuring the early childhood health checks are a safe experience
Building trust and tailoring conversations
Feedback
Public consultation has closed. Feedback provided will help us to refine the final version of the National Guidelines.
You can send enquiries about the project to engagement@mentalhealthcommission.gov.au