Mental Health Practitioners initiative

Policy

This policy outlines how schools plan for and implement the Mental Health Practitioners initiative, to provide students with access to support from qualified mental health practitioners.

Summary

• The department introduced the Mental Health Practitioners (MHP) initiative in 2019 to expand in-school mental health and wellbeing supports to Victorian government schools. From Term 4 2021, the MHP initiative has been rolled out to all eligible schools across Victoria.
• Under the MHP initiative, all government secondary schools and specialist schools with secondary-aged students are funded to employ a suitably qualified MHP (that is, psychologist, social worker, occupational therapist, mental health nurse or counsellor of a prescribed class).
• MHPs work to enhance mental health promotion and prevention activities in the school by building the capability of teaching staff and school leadership to identify and respond to changes in student mental health and wellbeing.
• MHPs provide time-limited direct counselling and other early intervention services for students experiencing mild to moderate mental health concerns.
• MHPs coordinate supports for students with complex needs, including proactively working with other departmental Health Wellbeing and Inclusion Workforces (HWIWs) and external health professionals to engage further support as required.
• Refer to the Guidance tab for more information and resources on the MHP initiative.

Details

The Mental Health Practitioners (MHP) initiative, operating in both secondary schools and specialist school settings with secondary enrolments, was established to boost schools’ capacity to support the mental health and wellbeing of their students.

The initiative provides funding to schools to employ a suitably qualified school-based MHP, who must be a fully qualified:

• nurse with a specialisation in mental health
• occupational therapist
• psychologist
• social worker
• counsellor of a prescribed class.

MHPs must also:

• for qualified psychologist, occupational therapist and mental health nurse applicants, be fully registered with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
• for qualified social work applicants, be eligible for registration with the Australian Association of Social Workers
• for qualified counsellor applicants, have completed a Bachelor of Counselling or a Master of Counselling and be a practicing/fully qualified member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) or the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA).

MHPs are employed at the Education Support (ES) classification Level 1 Range 4. All MHP positions must be advertised as ongoing unless employing an additional MHP or backfilling an MHP who is on leave. Refer to the specific qualification and registration requirements and guidance on recruitment: Recruiting a mental health practitioner.

MHPs report to the school principal (or their delegate) and work flexibly within the school’s existing wellbeing team across the 3 tiers of support by:

• enhancing mental health promotion and prevention activities in the school by:
  • embedding mental health promotion and prevention strategies and programs
  • building the capability of teaching and school leadership staff to manage student health and wellbeing
  • contributing to whole school health and wellbeing plans
• providing early intervention and supports for students with mild to moderate mental health needs, including counselling support for individual students and/or small groups
• coordinating supports for students with complex needs by proactively working with regional staff and other health professionals where required.

Funding

Funding to employ an MHP is provided to schools through the Student Resource Package (SRP). Funding for secondary schools is under ‘Core Student Learning Allocation Funding’ in the SRP (Reference 119). Funding for specialist schools is under ‘Targeted Initiatives’ in the SRP (Reference 131).

Schools experiencing persistent recruitment challenges can apply to use MHP initiative funding in different ways to support student mental health. Mental health coordinators (MHCs) are available to support with this process.

Consent requirements

Informed consent must be sought from a parent/carer (or the student if they are 18 years or older) before an MHP provides individual/small group intervention or counselling support to students. Schools must use the MHP consent form to obtain informed consent.

Where a relevant school staff member (such as a teacher, year level coordinator, MHP or principal who knows the student sufficiently well) considers the student to be a mature minor for the purpose of the decision to engage with an MHP, refer to the guidance chapter on Referral and consent processes, and the Mature Minors and Decision Making policy.

Schools must follow the MHP referral and consent process outlined in the guidance section when referring students to an MHP.

Contact

MHPs are supported in their roles by:

• regional MHCs who:
  • act as a point of contact for schools
  • support recruitment of MHPs, including as a selection panel member
  • coordinate professional supports and professional learning for MHPs
  • lead progress monitoring and reporting activities
• regional mental health engagement coordinators who:
  • provide expert advice on the intersection between disability and mental health
  • build MHP capability on how to effectively deliver supports to students with disability
  • support MHPs to raise awareness amongst school leadership teams of the need to tailor education and mental health support to student need through reasonable adjustment
  • identify barriers and enablers to mental health service use and other supports for students with disability.

Schools should contact their respective MHC or their regional mental health team.

In addition to their regional contacts, schools can direct general queries about the initiative to: mental.health.practitioners@education.vic.gov.au

Related policies

• Behaviour – Students
• Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes
• Child Safe Standards
• Disability Inclusion Funding and Support
• Disability Inclusion Profile
• Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion Workforces
• Interpreting and Translation Services
• Mature Minors and Decision Making
• Mental Health Fund and Menu
• Mental Health in Schools
• Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability
• Privacy and Information Sharing
• Protecting Children – Reporting and Other Legal Obligations
• Records Management – School Records
• Self-Harm and Attempted Suicide Response
• Student Engagement
• SRP – Mental Health Practitioners initiative
• Student Support Services (SSS)
• Suicide Response (Postvention)
• Victorian School Nursing Program

Guidance

This guidance contains the following chapters:

• Recruiting a mental health practitioner
• Mental Health Practitioner initiative funding
• Mental health practitioner scope of practice
• Mental health practitioner practice supports
• Referral and consent processes
• Student risk assessment and safety planning
• Complaints process

Recruiting a mental health practitioner

Qualifications and registration requirements

Mental health practitioners (MHPs) must:

• hold a Bachelor qualification or specialist/post graduate qualification (where applicable) in one of the following disciplines:
  • nursing with a specialisation in mental health
  • occupational therapy
  • psychology
  • social work
  • counsellor of a prescribed class
• for fully qualified nursing, occupational therapy and psychology applicants, hold full registration with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency
• for fully qualified social work applicants, be eligible for membership with the Australian Association of Social Workers
• for qualified counsellor applicants, have completed a Bachelor of Counselling or a Master of Counselling and be a practicing/fully qualified member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) or the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)
• have demonstrated direct counselling experience
• hold a current Working with Children Clearance and meet the requirements of all other suitability for employment checks – refer to Suitability for Employment Checks.

The MHP qualifications checklist (DOCX) outlines the full list of minimum requirements and desirable characteristics for each profession.

Schools are responsible for ensuring that MHPs maintain current full (that is, not student or provisional) registration during their employment tenure. This includes annual registration checks to ensure the currency of MHP’s registration status.

School mental health and wellbeing needs

Schools are strongly encouraged to advertise broadly for a MHP, across all 5 discipline areas (mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors of a prescribed class) to broaden the pool of applicants from which to select. Refer to the Resources tab for the MHP position description, recruitment template and other supports.

Recruitment documentation

Schools are required to use the standard MHP position description which outlines the core requirements of the role. The position description template is available on the Recruitment Online platform. When creating a job posting, schools are required to select option ‘9 – Mental Health Practitioner’ for Selection Criteria, Role, Responsibilities, and Who May Apply. Schools must also include their school context in the position description, ensure the employment status reads ‘Ongoing’ and select ‘Mental Health Practitioner’ under role type, making the posting visible to applicants searching for MHP vacancies.

To read more on advertising, recruiting and attraction strategies, refer to the Recruitment advice (DOCX) (staff login required).

Selection panel

Schools are strongly encouraged to include a regional mental health coordinator (MHC) on their interview panels for MHP recruitment. At least one panel representative should have in-depth knowledge or experience in the mental health field.

Recruitment support for schools

MHP initiative central team: mental.health.practitioners@education.vic.gov.au

Recruitment online and schools recruitment support: schools.recruitment@education.vic.gov.au

Schools can also contact their regional MHC for support with MHP recruitment.

Mental Health Practitioner initiative funding

Mental health practitioner FTE funding allocations via the Student Resource Package

Schools receive funding for a mental health practitioner (MHP) via the Student Resource Package (SRP) based on student enrolment numbers. Confirmed MHP funding is communicated to schools every 2 years via the SRP Guide.

Indicative FTE, released in September/October of the year prior, provides an indication of the likely FTE a school will receive in the confirmed SRP based on enrolment projections and may be used only for planning purposes.

FTE allocations are fixed from the SRP confirmed budget for a period of 2 years. At the conclusion of the 2-year period, MHP FTE funding allocations are reviewed and adjustments made to account for significant enrolment increases.

A school may wish to increase the FTE of an MHP using additional funding sources. This can include (but is not limited to) using funding from the Schools Mental Health Fund and Menu. Schools are encouraged to contact their mental health coordinator (MHC) to discuss funding options.

Surplus FTE

Where a school receives an increase to their FTE via the SRP, they are encouraged to discuss the willingness and availability of their existing MHP to increase their work hours. If the existing MHP does not have the capacity to increase their work hours and there is only a minimal FTE increase (for example, 0.1 or 0.2 FTE), rather than attempt to recruit to this small time fraction, a school can consider allocating the surplus funding to mental health programs, resources and training instead.

Schools must contact their MHC in these instances to develop and record a plan and agreement for the use of the surplus funding.
When recruiting an MHP, schools must advertise the full FTE outlined in the SRP.

Cash allocation

Schools receive MHP initiative funding through the SRP and it is split into a 94% credit allocation for salary costs and 6% cash allocation for non-salary costs including essential equipment (for example, secure filing cabinet, mobile phone) and professional development opportunities for MHPs. The cash component is not transferrable to other budget areas, even if not expended.

Schools are encouraged to discuss appropriate expenditure of unused funding with their MHC. Further information regarding initiative funding can be found on Student Resource Package – Targeted Initiatives.

Mental health practitioner scope of practice

Mental health practitioners (MHPs) report to the school principal (or their delegate) and work flexibly within the school’s existing wellbeing team across the 3 tiers of support. The MHP role includes:

• enhancing mental health promotion and prevention activities in the school by:
  • embedding mental health and wellbeing strategies and programs across the school
  • building the capability of teaching and school leadership staff to manage student health and wellbeing
  • contributing to whole school health and wellbeing plans
• providing early intervention supports for students with mild to moderate mental health needs, including counselling support for individual students and/or small groups
• coordinating supports for students with complex needs by proactively working with regional staff and other health professionals where required.

It is important for schools to understand and uphold the boundaries of the MHP role, as schools are not clinical environments and do not have the same clinical governance arrangements as other settings (for example, hospitals).

Certain activities are classified out of scope for MHPs. These are:

• completing funding applications, such as Program for Students with Disability (PSD) and/or Disability Inclusion Profile assessments and reports
• specialised/tertiary level counselling to students with complex presentations (for example, complex trauma, treatment of eating disorders, psychosis treatment)
• direct counselling support for school staff (school staff can access the Employee Assistance Program (PDF) if required) or parents/carers
• discipline-specific functions that fall outside of the MHP role (for example, mobility assessments by occupational therapists)
• leading teams of staff (for example, wellbeing coordinators)
• undertaking prevention/promotion activities or providing direct individual or group therapy to primary school students.

Records management

MHPs must comply with the department’s Records Management policy, and therefore must not use the following platforms to store personal or sensitive student information:

• unsecured web-based platforms such as Google Apps, Office 365, OneDrive or Microsoft Teams
• other school management software where other staff can access sensitive information (for example, Compass, Sentral, Xuno) even if using a restricted file format
• collaborative platforms such as WebEx
• shared drives that are accessible by students or folders that are accessible by other school staff personal devices.

If using an appropriate digital system, the system must have appropriate access controls. Schools must ensure the system maintains security patches/update and backups.

If a school is implementing their own tool for health and wellbeing case management a Privacy Impact Assessment is required. Refer to Privacy and Information Sharing.

Mental health practitioner practice supports

MHP Resource Hub

The MHP Resource Hub (Hub) gives MHPs access to a range of high-quality, evidence-based tools and resources to support their practice and ongoing professional development. The Hub is password-protected and can only be accessed by MHPs, mental health coordinators (MHCs) and mental health engagement coordinators (MHECs). MHPs are given access credentials to the Hub by the Central MHP initiative team upon commencement of their employment.

Orygen Practice Advice Line

The department has partnered with Orygen for the provision of a Practice Advice Line service available to all MHPs. The service provides MHPs with an opportunity for secondary consultation and practice support from senior clinicians at Orygen who have highly developed expertise in youth mental health. Through this service, MHPs are supported with clinical advice by clinicians who have experience in collaborative formulation and delivering evidence-based interventions for young people. MHPs are given access to the Orygen Practice Advice Line by the central MHP initiative team upon commencement of their employment. The service is available between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm every day of the school year.

Professional supervision

As school-based departmental employees, MHPs receive access to a range of professional supports including their school-based line manager, their school’s health and wellbeing team, the Education Support Class Performance and Development Process, MHCs and the Employee Assistance Program. While clinical (discipline specific) supervision is the responsibility of individual MHPs, professional supervision is provided to MHPs.

MHPs will have access to regular professional supervision including reflective practice activities, professional learning, workshops and discussion and de-briefing opportunities via the MHC and MHEC. Schools may also fund professional learning opportunities relevant to their MHP. A discussion between the MHP and school principal is encouraged to determine if this is an appropriate option.

Caseload Reporting Tool

As part of their day-to-day role, MHPs are required to utilise the MHP initiative Caseload Reporting Tool (tool), to keep a high-level record of the mental health and wellbeing activities they undertake. The tool serves as an important resource for MHPs to keep a record of the work they are undertaking. Aggregated data collected from the tool will help the department to provide additional support where key themes are identified across areas and regions. No identifiable student information is collected through the tool.

Data entered into the tool can be accessed by MHPs to give them a visual representation of the work they are doing, at the student and school level across the three tiers of intervention.

Referral and consent processes

Internal referrals

Where schools have an established wellbeing team, referrals must be made through the wellbeing lead or equivalent in the school. The wellbeing lead is responsible for ensuring internal referrals made fit within the mental health practitioner (MHP) scope of practice, that is, students with mild to moderate concerns.

Where the MHP is the school’s wellbeing lead, referrals to the MHP service by students, staff or parent/carer(s) must follow the school’s agreed referral process before they are accepted.

A referral is required prior to each intervention/service an MHP conducts with an individual student or student group. Schools may use their own internal referral process when referring a student to the MHP. Schools may also use the department’s template referral form (DOCX) which includes key elements such as the reason for referral. In addition to providing the MHP with the reason for referral, school staff should consider providing the MHP with information on:

• general student demographic information
• prior assessments, for example, behaviour/social emotional assessments, learning difficulties, prior risk assessments
• previous engagement with allied health professionals (where relevant)
• attendance records
• known formal diagnoses.

Informed consent

Once a referral to the MHP service has been accepted, informed consent (from the parent or carer or, where applicable, from students directly) is required before an MHP can provide direct support to students. For consent to be informed, the parent/carer and student must be advised:

• of the details of the service, including the purpose of the service
• what information will be collected and how the information will be used and shared
• that they can withdraw from the MHP service at any stage.

Schools must seek informed consent prior to service provision from an MHP. Blanket consent (for example, consent for the provision of all future services to be provided sought at the beginning of a school year/term) is not considered informed consent and therefore cannot be used by schools.

Process for obtaining informed consent

1. Schools must use the MHP consent form (DOCX) to obtain informed consent.
2. The consent form must be signed by a parent/carer prior to a service commencing (unless a student is over the age of 18 or considered a mature minor).
3. If written or electronic consent cannot be obtained, verbal consent can be obtained via telephone or web conferencing. All of the information contained in the consent form must be communicated and a clear and thorough record of the conversation documented. Interpreting and translation services are available if required.

The MHP should provide a verbal reminder to student(s) that their engagement with the MHP service is voluntary and that they can leave the service at any time.

Referrals to external mental health services

In situations where students need to be referred to external services, MHPs will follow existing processes in place at the school. Where existing processes for external referral have not been established, the mental health coordinator (MHC) will work with the school to establish an appropriate process.

Mature minors

In some circumstances, a student may consent to engaging with an MHP on their own behalf, if an appropriate school staff member considers the student to be a mature minor (as outlined below) for the purpose of making that decision.

In accordance with the department’s Mature Minors policy, a student may ask to make schooling decisions on their own behalf, without the involvement of their parents. In those circumstances, the appropriate school staff member may assess whether the student is a mature minor with respect to providing consent to receive the MHP service. There is no specific age when a young person may be considered sufficiently mature and capable of making their own decision.

Assessing a student as a mature minor

When considering whether a student is a mature minor for the purposes of providing informed consent, the appropriate school staff member can take into account the extent to which the student understands:

• what the MHP service involves
• what the MHP service is for
• why the MHP service is needed
• why it applies to them
• the potential consequences of engaging with or not engaging with the MHP service
• how the information they provide to the MHP service will be used and in what circumstances their information might be shared with others
• any other options available (if relevant).

The MHP can make their own judgement as to whether the student is a mature minor for the purpose of providing informed consent for the MHP service.

If an MHP considers a student to be a mature minor for the purpose of receiving mental health support via the MHP initiative, the student can self-refer and sign their own consent form.

For more information, refer to Mature Minors and Decision Making.

Refusal to provide consent

If a referral is received but appropriate consent is not received, the MHP service is unable to proceed, and this must be documented by the MHP.

In these circumstances, schools should work with the parent/carer and student to consider other suitable support options including referrals to external agencies. Refer to the Resources tab for referral options.

Withdrawing consent

Informed consent that has been granted at a point in time for a student to receive MHP support can be withdrawn at any time and services must cease if consent is withdrawn.

Privacy, confidentiality and information sharing

The MHP consent form details how a student’s privacy and confidentiality is safely managed and outlines the circumstances under which the disclosure of student information to the principal (or delegate) may be required.

An MHP may disclose student information to an appropriate staff member in particular circumstances on a ‘need to know’ basis to perform primary functions.

Such circumstances include:

• supporting student education
• social/emotional wellbeing
• reducing risk of harm to student or others
• making adjustments or providing a safe workplace.

For more information, refer to Privacy and Information Sharing

Student risk assessment and safety planning

Mental health practitioners (MHPs) may conduct a mental health risk assessment in response to an incident or emergency, or where there are significant concerns for the student's wellbeing. This includes, but is not limited to, suicidal ideation, self-harm, substance misuse and other risk-taking behaviour, a sexual offence, physical violence and suspicions, disclosures or incidents of child abuse.

A risk assessment must occur if there is a serious risk to the student’s safety. In this circumstance, appropriate reporting procedures need to be undertaken to address the student’s safety in line with the department’s reporting obligations. If a student is engaged with the MHP service as a result of a risk assessment, consent must be sought via the MHP consent form.

Refer to: Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies) and Protecting Children – Reporting and Other Legal Obligations.

Schools may develop a student safety plan as part of the risk assessment process. If needed, a safety plan must be adapted to include:

• student safety at school and online
• informing parents/carers of increased risk as it occurs (if this would not give rise to a safety or wellbeing risk for the student)
• diffusion and regulation strategies to manage risk at school
• safe people and places in the school
• thresholds for involving emergency services, for example, an ambulance, police, DFFH and Child Protection.

Instances such as self-harm and attempted suicides must be documenting using the department’s safety plan template – refer to Self-Harm and Attempted Suicide Response.

Mandatory reporting

All school staff, including MHPs, have a range of reporting and legal obligations to protect children and young people from abuse. School staff must be aware of and comply with their legal obligations to report suspected child abuse and provide ongoing appropriate support.

MHPs must comply with mandatory reporting obligations under the Children Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic) with the MHP following the requirements of a ‘mandatory reporter’.

MHPs must also be aware of and comply with their legal obligations to report suspected child abuse and provide ongoing appropriate support.

MHPs must follow the Four Critical Actions where there is an incident, disclosure or suspicion of child abuse. The Four Critical Actions outline who an incident, disclosure or suspicion should be reported to.

When dealing with an incident, disclosure or suspicion of child abuse, staff should ensure that the principal and school leadership team is made aware of the concern and are involved in providing ongoing appropriate support.

If an incident or allegation involves an employee, volunteer or contractor at the school, staff must also follow the department policy on Reportable Conduct and report the incident to the department's Employee Conduct Branch on 03 7022 0005.

Where a school staff member has reported a concern to Child Protection but they continue to have concerns for the child after Child Protection has closed the case, they may escalate the matter through Child Protection complaints management processes or reporting concerns from the principal to their regional area executive director.

Failure to disclose the information may be a criminal offence unless there is a ‘reasonable excuse’ or an individual has an 'exemption' from doing so.

For further information, refer to Protecting Children – Reporting and Other Legal Obligations.

Complaints process

If parents/carers or students would like to make a complaint about the mental health practitioners service, they can use the Parent Complaints policy. This policy sets out the whole-of-department parent complaint-handling framework, across all 3 tiers of the complaints process (school, regional office and central office). This policy is intended for all people who might need to access the department’s parent complaint process, including parents, mature minors, school staff, regional office staff and central office staff.

Resources

Referral and consent resources

• Mental health practitioner (MHP) – consent form and privacy information (DOCX)
• MHP internal referral form (DOCX)
• Sample newsletter content for MHP initiative (DOCX)

Recruitment support

• Qualifications checklist (DOCX) – lists the minimum and desirable qualifications and registration requirements for mental health practitioners
• Recruitment advice (DOCX) (staff login required)
• Recruitment online – provides resources to support the recruitment of mental health practitioners, including position descriptions, templates and suggested interview questions
• Forms – Teaching Service and HR Administration – provides links to commonly used department forms, including template Offer of employment for Education Support Staff
• Alternative funding plan template (staff login required)
• Template offer of employment – counsellor applicants (DOCX) (staff login required)
• Template offer of employment – mental health nurse/occupational therapist/psychologist applicants (DOCX) (staff login required)
• Template offer of employment – social work applicants (DOCX) (staff login required)

Professional supports for MHPs

• Professional Supervision Framework (PDF) (staff login required)
• Mental health and wellbeing toolkit
• PROTECT
• Amplify – student voice

External referral options for mental health services

• Headspace
• eHeadspace phone: 1800 650 890, 9 am to 1 am Australian Eastern Standard Time
• Kids Helpline phone: 1800 551 800, 24 hours a day 7 days a week
• Beyond Blue phone: 1300 224 636
• Yarning SafeNStrong (YSNS) phone 1800 959 563
• ReachOut Australia
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
• Lifeline phone: 13 11 14, 24 hours a day 7 days a week