Cobram, Nathalia and Numurkah secondary colleges and Yarrawonga College P-12 (Pinniger St campus) will recruit mental health practitioners throughout term four.
The vital funding is from the Victorian Government’s $51.2 million Mental Health Practitioners initiative.
Mental health practitioners could include psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and mental health nurses.
Cobram Secondary College principal Kimberley Tempest said the school was advertising to fill the mental health practitioner role.
“In the meantime, staff have been working on a proactive wellbeing strategy that will see all staff connecting with all students - this will launch at the start of 2022,” she said.
“As a school, we’re working hard to ensure all students feel connected.
“This has been especially difficult during COVID-19.
“We can’t wait to have the students back at school again.
“Already, staff and students have enjoyed shared lunches together as each year level returns and we’ll continue this next week to celebrate the return of each of our year levels.”
The funding will allow mental health practitioners to work for up to five days a week.
The practitioners will offer counselling services, connect students to broader allied and community health services and deliver whole-school mental health promotion and prevention activities.
Nathalia Secondary College school counsellor Craig Carley said the school was actively improving practices to respond to mental health needs of students.
“It’s always brilliant to address the mental health needs of students at school,” he said.
“The role of the practitioner will be to provide that direct support and early intervention.
“The mental health practitioner will complement the wellbeing team and the school’s programs that are already in place.”
Victorian Education Minister James Merlino said the initiative was finalised a year earlier than originally planned, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve laid out our plan to get students back into the classroom this term, but we know some kids will need more support – and this program will make it easy for them to reach out and get the mental health care they deserve,” he said.
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