Mental Health Practitioner

Location: South West Region | Colac-Otway

Job type: Part time / From 15/11/2024

Organisation: Schools (Government)

**Salary**: Salary not specified

Occupation: Health and Allied Health

Reference: 1452111

**Location Profile**:
[Enter Free Text Description here]Lavers Hill K-12 College is set over two campuses. Our main Lavers Hill campus is a welcoming rural College, located on the Great Ocean Road in the Otway Ranges. The College is set in extensive grounds with excellent recreational and sporting facilities. We offer an enriching variety of programs for developing students¿ learning and social potential.

Our second campus in Colac is a Flexible Learning Options (FLOs) school, known as the Greater Otways Applied Learning School (GOALS). GOALS aims to re-engage young people who are currently disengaged from any form of education, by providing them with a flexible and tailored pathway-based education program. This program has seen many of our students not only reconnect with formal education, but attain certificates at TAFE, in VCE VM/VPC and continue onto employment or further education.

This role will predominately based at our Lavers Hill Campus working with our secondary students.

**Selection Criteria**:

- Ability to implement a range of small group and whole-school mental health prevention and promotion activities aimed at improving student mental health and wellbeing, including the delivery of capability building and awareness raising activities for staff and/or students on key mental health and wellbeing issues affecting the school’s student population.
- Demonstrated ability to input into the development, implementation and evaluation of processes and strategies aimed at enhancing mental health and wellbeing prevention, promotion and early intervention.
- Demonstrated experience in assessing, conceptualising and analysing wellbeing issues, and providing evidence-based direct counselling support to clients with a range of mental health needs.
- Demonstrated experience in coordinating supports for young people with complex needs including referrals to a range of specialist services as appropriate.
- Highly developed communication, networking and interpersonal skills including the ability to liaise effectively with a wide range of people.
- Clear understanding of legislative requirements regarding privacy of health information.

**Role**:
The Mental Health Practitioners (MHP) initiative was announced by the Minister for Education in late 2018 to expand mental health and wellbeing support in government schools. The initiative provides for a suitably qualified mental health professional in all government secondary school campuses and specialist school (with secondary-aged enrolments) settings.

Operating in collaboration with the relevant Department of Education Regional Mental Health Branch, this role has the following functions:

- Enhancing mental health prevention and promotion activities in the school by contributing to whole-school health and wellbeing plans, building the capability of teaching staff and school leadership to address matters relating to student mental health and wellbeing, and helping to develop and deliver appropriate programs and strategies in the school according to specified school priorities
- Providing early intervention services (including short-term counselling) for individual students and groups identified as at-risk and/or experiencing or demonstrating mild to moderate mental health concerns; and
- Coordinating supports for students with complex needs both within and external to the school, including proactively working with regions, local mental health service providers and other health professionals to engage further support as required.
- Education support class level 1 range 4_

The successful applicant will be an experienced professional who will carry out their duties and responsibilities, relative to their professional discipline, with a high level of autonomy and with mínimal reliance on professional supervision. The successful applicant will be responsible for the development and implementation of professional support programs within an educational environment, including guidance to other professional staff.

As an education support class position, this role supports the educational services being provided to students, but will not include duties of teaching as defined in clause 2.6.1 of the _Education and Training Reform Act 2006_ (Vic).

**Responsibilities**:

- Providing advice and professional learning to others, including teachers and other school wellbeing staff, to build the capacity of schools to improve students wellbeing, learning and developmental outcomes.
- Planning and implementing evidence-based intervention strategies for students with complex needs including collaborating with families, other professionals and agencies when appropriate to effectively manage risk.
- Working collaboratively with the school to enhance mental health preven