Herald Sun reports on MHiPS statewide expansion in Victoria

Published

Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - 12:00 PM

This article was originally published in The Herald Sun. 

Mental Health Lesson Plan

Schools get access to wellbeing program for kids

Every Victorian state primary school will get access to a dedicated mental health and wellbeing leader under a massive statewide push to tackle rising rates of child mental ill health.

The Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative embeds a trained mental health and wellbeing leader in each campus to upskill staff to spot early warning signs and connect families with specialist services. 

Early results from an initial pilot found 80 per cent of participating schools reported improvements in student mental health and wellbeing within two years. Evaluations of the program, developed by Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne, also found after one year 87 per cent of teachers felt more confident supporting students with mental health concerns. 

At Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School, principal Joanne Nolan said the focus on wellbeing had "transformed" their school. "I think wellbeing has always been really important to our school and we have this belief that unless our kids are happy and regulated and ready to learn it makes learning really hard," she said. "Now that we're working as part of this program, it's enabled us to sort of legitimise and really proactively go about doing what we've done and having a leader to pull it all together." She said having the role led by an experienced teacher, additional to their classroom staff, was critical. Classroom teachers understand how a school works and all that's involved and I think that just helps to give some credibility to the program too," she said.

Mental health and wellbeing leader at the school Melissa Stivala said working in the role allowed her to track trends across the school and step in early. "Through our data we've found ... we had 17 per cent of our students struggling in 2024 and then over 2025 that decreased to 9 per cent of students struggling," she said. "The use of data has actually helped us to be really intentional and proactive about what we do," she said. We've had police from Sunbury police station come in to talk about social media, what is with the law ... Life Education has come out and we've looked at protective behaviours ... We have a wellbeing dog that goes into classes once a week."

Murdoch Children's Research Institute's Professor Frank Oberklaid said half of all anxiety, mood, impulse control and substance use disorders emerge by age 14. He said there would never be enough mental health professionals to meet demand, and schools were the ideal environment for early intervention. "The clues are there from an early age and schools are the ideal platform to pick up kids who might get into trouble and intervene early before they need referral," he said. "It's universal, every child goes to school, it's not stigmatising ... we've seen kids start to self-identify when they're having a bad day. You also have trained professionals, teachers, observing children in the classroom, on the playground, so they're in a unique position to help."

The Victorian Government has committed $200m over four years and $93.7m ongoing, to give all of the state's 1800 government and low-fee primary schools access to the program.  

This article was originally published in The Herald Sun.