Getting on Track in Time (Got It!) is an early-intervention wellbeing program for children in kindergarten through to year two, delivered in public primary schools across the Mid North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD). We sat down with the team from the Got It! Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service to find out more about the program.
Our discussion focused on how the team works closely with children experiencing behavioural challenges, their parents, staff at Green Hill Public School and Aboriginal Elders to build social and emotional welbeing and improve mental health outcomes.
Can you provide us with a brief description of your innovation project?
Solange: It is a culturally adapted version of our social and emotional wellbeing program that is focused around our core business. Got It! is delivered to children aged 5-8 years, their parents and educators. It aims to improve relationships and increase connectedness, to prevent conduct disorders and other mental health issues down the track.
What inspired you to take on this innovation project?
Tianna: My passion for wanting to help the Aboriginal community, and in particular, Aboriginal children in regards to social wellbeing and emotional regulation strategies. Providing healing opportunities for Aboriginal people and communities is important to me.
Solange: There were quite a few things that fell into place for this [project] to happen. The Department of Education strongly encouraged us to liaise with Green Hill Public School. [It was] the enthusiasm and warmth of the children, which was gorgeous, and the curiosity of the parents. You're working with all these things and with people who are completely devoted to their job and community, so it was lovely to be in that space. It’s about coming around the next time with people having been exposed to us and being familiar and are able to say they're okay. We can engage with them and give them the space and time to hear them out. We also invested a lot of time in the preparation phase.
This preparation included having meetings with the school community, including the principal Janet Haigh and teachers, the Aboriginal Education Officers (some of whom were also parents) and the language teacher Aunty Rosalie who is also an Elder in the community. Through these discussions, we discussed how we could adapt some of the work to be more culturally aligned and include both language and a sense of identity in the social and emotional wellbeing program. Aunty Rosalie was a part of the school and would come weekly to teach language, so we appreciated the support she gave us.
How did your innovation project help or impact your consumers?
Tianna: The biggest impact was the connection that we made with the children, parents and teachers within that school and in that community. That's what made it such a success, the connections that we built with them.
Solange: I think it's been inviting people to new experiences and providing information and knowledge that is often targeted to very high-risk populations. If you're just getting by, you aren't really invited into these kinds of spaces and your opportunities are limited. We go to schools, and we say, look at this stuff we have, you might like it, you might not, but we present it to them and give it space.
How can we find out more?
To learn more about the Got It! project, visit the Mid North Coast Local Health District Mental Health page.
The Got It! team was recently presented with the Youth Mental Health award at the 2023 Mental Health Matters Awards. The team also won the Transforming Patient Experience category at the 2023 MNCLHD Innovation Awards . Watch their awards nomination video.
