This Policy Brief documents current research findings about children’s mental health; it suggests the need for increased awareness of children’s mental health concerns and emphasises the importance of early prevention and intervention. In Australia, there has been significantly increased awareness of mental illness and a major increase in available funding. However, mental health in early...

Parenting young children has become a more complex and stressful business, especially for those families in our community with the least resources (Grose, 2006; Hayes et al, 2010; Poole, 2004; Richardson & Prior, 2005; Trask, 2010). A widening gap exists between families that function well and those that are vulnerable. The paradox of service delivery...

Once upon a time, not so long ago, we believed that when we mapped the human genome we would be able to identify the kinds of people children would grow up to be. We hoped that understanding genetics would make it simple: Johnny has gene variants xyz so will grow up to be 190 centimetres...

Families are often faced with a range of different, complex health and psychosocial problems. Place-based approaches aim to address these complex problems by focusing on the social and physical environment of a community and on better integrated and more accessible service systems, rather than focusing principally on the problems faced by individuals. A place-based approach...

The Children’s Ground project aims to develop a place-based approach to support children and their families in highly disadvantaged communities. The project approach is informed by research and evidence, recognising the multiple and multi-level influences on children’s development and the need to support the role of communities in improving outcomes for children.