Partnerships and collaboration are critical to success in wellbeing and prevention efforts, and Prevention United is proud to be a member of the Wellbeing and Prevention Coalition in Mental Health – a group of like-minded organisations committed to enhancing Australia’s approach to preventive mental health.

The Wellbeing and Prevention Coalition’s Policy Briefs and Submissions

Policy Brief: Promoting small business owner mental health

01

Embed the voices of small business owners

02

Protect and promote the mental health and wellbeing of small business owners

03

Address the drivers of distress for small business owners

04

Increase awareness, access and uptake of mental health supports

05

Ensure national consistency

06

Support small business owners to identify, mitigate and manage risks to their own psychological health through the workplace health and safety framework

07

Build the knowledge base

Final review of the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement. A joint submission from The Wellbeing and Prevention Coalition in Mental Health

01

Use the next National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement to set, coordinate, and monitor progress on two to five national priorities dedicated to the prevention of mental ill-health

02

Develop a whole of government action plan to jointly address key social determinants of mental health, with a joint action to eradicate child maltreatment as the first whole of government priority

03

Use the National Agreement to build in governance arrangements that will enable a whole of government and whole of community approach

Transforming Australia’s approach to mental health and wellbeing. A pre-election submission from The Wellbeing and Prevention Coalition in Mental Health

01

Make Australia a world leader in preventative mental health

02

Eradicate child maltreatment within a generation

Preventing child maltreatment to prevent mental ill-health

01

Data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study revealed that 62% of the population have experienced maltreatment in childhood

02

Child maltreatment is a ‘toxic stressor’ which negatively affects biological and psychosocial development

03

There is growing evidence around what works to prevent child maltreatment, however this is not being well applied

04

Childhood maltreatment is the single most important form of primary prevention of mental ill-health and suicidality

05

Eradicating child maltreatment would prevent a staggering amount of mental health conditions in Australia, including 41% of suicide attempts

06

A multi-modal prevention approach is needed

School-based mental health and wellbeing programs. What’s working, what’s not?

01

Develop national guidelines for the implementation of evidence-based mental health and wellbeing programs in schools

02

Support staff to undertake professional development in mental wellbeing promotion and mental ill-health prevention

03

Support teachers and student wellbeing officers to strengthen collaboration with the wider school community

04

Allocate funding for school mental health and wellbeing programs equitably through the National School Wellbeing Program

05

Include consistent, validated measures of student mental health and wellbeing in the new National School Reform Agreement

06

Develop a comprehensive National Dataset on Student Wellbeing

07

Implement a regular representative national survey of child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing

08

Increase mental health content in pre-service teacher training

Exploring the role of community coalitions in the prevention of mental health conditions

01

Fund the continued implementation and evaluation of community coalition models

02

Fund coalitions using a whole-of-government mechanism

03

Ensure there is sufficient funding to support specific phases of the community coalition approach

04

Ensure funding contracts hold the expectation that actions will be achieved within a defined time frame

05

Monetise the benefits of preventing mental health problems within a specific community

06

Draw on trial results to develop program guidelines to support national roll-out

Starting Upstream: Building a Strong and Sustainable Preventative Mental Health System for Australia

01

Provide dedicated and recurrent fundings streams for prevention

02

Create new leadership and governance structures for preventive mental health

03

Develop mechanisms to boost Australia’s capacity to implement safe, effective and cost-saving preventive mental health initiatives

04

Develop a highly skilled and widely distributed mental health promotion workforce

05

Track and report on funding, outputs and outcomes of government funded preventive mental health initiatives

06

Strengthen Australia’s capacity and capability in preventive mental health research

Primed for prevention: A consensus statement on the prevention of mental disorders

01

Support parents to help their children thrive

02

Build children and adolescents’ social supports and protective life skills

03

Support young people and adults to look after their mental health as well as their physical health

04

Create mentally healthy workplaces

05

Address the social determinants of mental health

06

Strengthen the research evidence and improve data collection