Mental Health Promotion and Early Intervention in Early Childhood and Primary School Settings: A Review

Response Ability is an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (the Department). Since 2000, the project team has provided free multimedia resources and practical support for universities and teacher educators, addressing pre-service education for secondary teachers. The focus of the existing Response Ability resources is on the mental health and wellbeing of secondary school students. The use of these resources is designed to encourage pre-service teachers to engage with and promote social and emotional health in their teaching practices. In 2006, the Response Ability project was directed by the Department to advise how the scope of these resources could be broadened to support primary and early childhood teacher education. As part of this, a large-scale scoping study was undertaken to inform discussions about mental health promotion and early intervention 1 The review described in this paper was supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, as part of the national Response Ability teacher education initiative. KAY-LAMBKIN, KEMP, STAFFORD, HAZELL 32 strategies in primary and early childhood settings. A structured literature review was completed as part of this process, examining three key questions: • What are the mental health issues facing children in early childhood and the primary school years? • What role can educators have in addressing these issues? • What training do educators need in order to fulfil this role? The following article discusses the findings of this literature review.