A mental health service to help support our young people in government high schools, will roll out in full this year.

The service, which will be available at up to 65 high schools, area schools and R-12 schools in 2023, will see mental health practitioners based in schools to support young people with mild to moderate and emerging mental health concerns. It followed a trial at nine schools in 2022.

More than $50 million is being invested to enable 100 FTE mental health and learning support specialists to provide more support to students. This includes 55 FTE for this new School Mental Health Service.

Eligible high schools in the program were selected based on a range of criteria, including those with the highest levels of social disadvantage.

The service is designed to complement the range of existing mental health and wellbeing services already available in schools, including Student Wellbeing Leaders, Student Support Services and the Social Work Incident Support Service (SWISS).

The school mental health practitioners will provide a brief intervention service and will work with other health providers to refer students who require treatment and support for complex and significant mental health issues.

The Department for Education will now begin recruiting qualified social workers, psychologists and occupational therapists.