The
Sydney Morning Herald,
“Northern
Rivers in youth mental health crisis”,
20 March 2023, excerpt:
A
soon-to-be-published resilience survey has found levels of depression
and anxiety symptoms are now higher among Northern Rivers children
and young people than the national average of earlier survey
participants for some student groups.
Conducted
almost six months after the February 2022 disaster, the survey was
taken by 6611 school students, nearly 13 per cent of all young people
aged between five and 19 in the region.
It
found that almost one in three Northern Rivers primary students and
more than one in three secondary students were at risk of depression
and anxiety.
More
than 40 per cent of primary students were at risk of trauma-related
stress. For secondary students, it was almost 20 per cent.
Inundated,
isolated, in despair: Floodwaters around Lismore’s St Carthage’s
Cathedral and Trinity Catholic College.CREDIT:GETTY
Healthy
North Coast, a not-for profit organisation delivering the Australian
government's Primary Health Network program in the region,
commissioned the research as the first step in its Resilient Kids
initiative, funded by a $10 million grant from the National Emergency
Management Agency.
Healthy
North Coast chief executive Monika Wheeler said that the survey
established a baseline which could help to measure the mental health
and wellbeing of young people in the Northern Rivers over time.
She
said young people reported generally feeling supported and connected
within their schools and communities. However, the survey also
highlighted areas to focus on in future.
"The
Resilient Kids initiative will use local insights to design tailored
mental health and wellbeing supports," she said.
"We
know that successful recovery is based on understanding community
context and is not a one-off event.
"It's
multi-year, multi-layered, and our approach to supporting our young
people might change over time as we see how they respond."
Tens
of millions of federal and state dollars has been promised for mental
health and wellbeing programs in the region's schools and wider
community.
Safe
haven hubs have opened across the region to provide free mental
health support. Drop-ins are encouraged and there is no need for
referrals or appointments. For young people, dedicated online and
phone services also are available.
The
difficulty is reaching those who won't, or can't, use these services.
Children's
charities Unicef Australia and Royal Far West are rolling out a $4.5
million support program covering 30 state primary schools and
preschools in the Northern Rivers and south-east Queensland.
Social
workers, psychologists, speech pathologists and occupational
therapists will enter school communities to help staff address
learning delays in children.
Unicef
Australia chief advocate for children Nicole Breeze said thousands of
children will need intensive support, as the effects of the disaster
can potentially remain hidden for years.
"Our
first engagement in this space was after the Black Summer bushfires,"
she said. "With children the impact can stay hidden, it can take
a year or two, sometimes three. The good news is that with the right
support, at the right time, they can bounce back."
The
plight of Northern Rivers children garnered international attention
Last April when Prince William spoke online with Jeanette Wilkins,
the principal of St Joseph's Primary School Woodburn, who told him
the community had lost its school and "everything in it"
and the mental health of the community had taken a major blow.
The
school was underwater for eight days.
"We're
two months down the track and nothing has changed, those 34 families
are still displaced, so there's no certainty for those children,"
she told the prince.
"For
us, the most important thing was to make contact with our families
and our children, and as fast as possible to set up a school
somewhere just to get the children back to some form of normality and
start dealing with their trauma."
At
Christmas, 29 families of students and staff at St Joseph's (more
than half the students) were still living in some form of temporary
housing such as a caravan, shed, shipping container or the shell of
their flood-stripped home.
Ten
Catholic schools in the Lismore diocese were directly affected by the
floods, including St Joseph's. Three schools are inaccessible, and
1250 students are being taught in temporary facilities.
Morning
tea and lunch are provided in some schools, as are new school
uniforms and shoes, to help address absenteeism. A team of 30
counsellors is working in 23 schools, and community services provider
Social Futures is operating in seven of the flood-hit schools to
assist families in gaining to access additional mental health social
and financial support.
Thirty-seven
state facilities suffered significant damage, and five schools still
operate away from their original site.
