Page 3297 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 September 2015
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We can demonstrate that we have taken the mental health of young people seriously. We are supporting our schools and communities to encourage conversations about why good mental health is so important and how it can be maintained. This simple step is assisting young people to look for help. They may do this through talking about what is going on for them, with each other and with trusted adults, or sourcing information through credible online supports.
Young people have told us that families and the communities that they live in are important to them. They are critical to developing a young person’s sense of connection, participation and engagement in their world, including their physical environment.
While many young people do well, we must ensure that for young people who are more vulnerable there is help and support available so that they do not get left behind. Such support means that a young person can stay engaged at school because they have had access to flexible learning options to accommodate specific needs and to pathways to participate in further education, training or employment.
We recognise that support is critical at times of transition, particularly in cases where young people are moving out of the youth justice system or come into or out of the home care system. That is why we have introduced major changes to the out of home care system under a step up for our kids. The fundamental change sees a shift towards therapeutic and trauma informed practice in responding to the needs of children and young people, and those practices are rolling out. This approach recognises the deep and enduring impacts of abuse and neglect on children and young people and how to best support them.
The changes in out of home care also mean that young people will have a continuum of support through to the age of 21. For example, this might include support to move into their own place or to supported housing, to study or gain employment and to live independently. Both the government and the community recognise that our human services system works best when the service response considers a person as a whole, for example, when we see health, education, justice and community services working together. There are many examples where we have seen this working for young people over the past five years and it is why we are implementing the better services reform of the human services system in the ACT.
Under the framework of the human services blueprint, this government is changing the way that services and supports are being delivered. This new direction is about people getting the right service, at the right time, and for the time it is needed. For a young person this is especially important. We all know that getting the right kind of support early makes a big difference in how the rest of life unfolds. Better services will mean that a young person can access accommodation support and the kind of services that will help them to continue with their schooling or study. Better services is about supporting a young person to build their capacity to make positive choices about their future.
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