This page outlines how education staff, care services, parents, guardians, and health professionals work together to manage a child or student with depression in education and care settings.

About depression

Depression affects the way we think, how we see ourselves and our future. Along with feeling sad or irritable it may seem that nothing is worthwhile and that things will never get better.

Depression can stop children and young people enjoying the things they like doing and interferes with normal social activities, interests, school work and family life.

Find out more about depression including:

• signs and symptoms
• types of depression
• causes of depression.

Health support plans and agreements

If the child or student has depression, the education or care service should refer to health support planning for children and students in education and care settings to ensure that the appropriate plans and agreements are in place. This is in addition to the depression-specific plans and agreements listed on this page.

Regulation scale to identify behaviour

The regulation scale – HSP432 (DOC 182KB) is a tool that education care staff can use to help children to identify:

• what is happening around them that is impacting on their mood change
• what signals their body is giving them
• ways to respond to their body’s signals that will help them manage the change in mood.

The regulation scale guide – HSP432a (PDF 500KB) supports the development of the regulation scale. It can be used with interoception activities to help the child develop meaningful interoception skills.

Some examples of completed regulation scales include:

• externalising behaviour (PDF 354KB)
• internalising behaviour (PDF 130KB)
• symbols and reduced language (PDF 170KB)
• year 3 boy (PDF 159KB).

Understanding student behaviour

The understanding behaviour template – HSP433 (DOC 456KB) helps to identify why behaviours are occurring how to change it.

The template can be used to:

• identify possible triggers for the concerning behaviour
• document what is happening when the behaviour is most likely to occur
• compare when the behaviour is least or most likely to occur
• help you identify the purpose of the behaviour
• identify teaching environments best suited to the young person.

Training for education and care staff

Children and young people with depression may have low levels of interoception, which means they are unable to understand or connect with their bodies in ways that would enable them to self-regulate. It is important to teach interoception to help children and young people develop skills in this area.

Learn more about interoception and how it can be applied in the classroom including:

• benefits of teaching interoception
• interoception tools and resources
• models of interoception in the classroom.

Friends Resilience have developed a range of age specific programs for education and care services to guide the social and emotional development of children and young people through teaching them resilience:

• Fun Friends (for young children)
• Friends for Life (for children)
• My Friends Youth (for youth)
• Adult Resilience (for adults).

How parents and caregivers can help

Parents or guardians must:

• notify the school, preschool or care service if their child has depression
• complete health care plans and agreements with their health care professionals and provide them to the school, preschool or care service
• provide required medication to the school, preschool or care service.

If a medication agreement is in place, parents and caregivers must fulfil the roles and responsibilities outlined on the medication management and care page.

How health professionals can help

Health professionals support schools, preschools, care services and families by helping to develop the care plan and any supporting medication and care agreements.