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Education and the mental health and wellbeing of First Nations children and young people
Russ-Smith, Jessica Green, Sue
Russ-Smith, Jessica
Green, Sue
Author
Abstract
The education of First Nations children and young people is very important and is associated with their wellbeing. There are current policies and programs that address First Nations children’s and young people’s mental wellbeing and school attendance. But there has been a decline in school attendance and an increase in mental illness, including incidences of suicide. Policies and programs must address the complicated associations between structural factors, service design, access to service and schooling, and protective factors. How this can be achieved can be influenced by the recognition of the practices in community-controlled institutions, and the protective and positive factors that occur within First Nations communities. These must be at the forefront in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies and practices.
The authors have drawn on scholarly articles, government reports and grey literature, to identify best practice. Areas for further research on mental wellbeing and educational engagement for First Nations children and young people are identified. The paper reviews relevant policies and recent programs to evaluate what works in improving First Nations children’s and young people’s mental wellbeing and school attendance; it identifies gaps in existing literature; and proposes opportunities for further research and evidence-based practice.
Keywords
Date
2023
Type
Book chapter
Journal
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Allied Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2023.
All material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, with the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms (the terms of use for the Coat of Arms are available at https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/commonwealth-coat-arms) or any material owned by third parties, including for example, design, layout or images obtained under licence from third parties and signatures. All reasonable efforts have been made to identify and label material owned by third parties.
The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website (available at https://creativecommons.org), as is the full legal code for the CC BY 4.0 license.
Diamond open access.