Professor Alison Calear is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership-II Fellow and Co-Head of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. Her research is focused on youth mental health, eHealth and the prevention and early intervention of anxiety, depression, suicide and self-harm. She is also interested in the promotion of help-seeking behaviour and the role of literacy and stigma in the help-seeking process. Most recently, her research has included the evaluation of an emotion literacy program in ACT primary schools with children aged 7-10 years and a trial assessing the effectiveness of a web-based resource to support parents to better recognise and respond to psychological distress or suicide risk in their child.

The aim of the proposed study is two-fold: (1) to adapt the evidence-based online OurFutures Mental Health program for upper-primary schools using co-design methods, and (2) to evaluate the efficacy of the adapted program in increasing mental health literacy, reducing stigma and promoting help-seeking and emotion regulation strategies in children aged 10-12 years.

Children from 10 primary schools in the ACT and NSW will participate in a trial to assess immediate and longer-term program effects, while select school staff will participate in interviews to evaluate program satisfaction and identify observable effects of the intervention on student learning, behaviour and wellbeing. The proposed study will provide important new knowledge on the efficacy and acceptability of a mental health literacy program in children.

If found to be effective, the proposed online program will be rapidly scaled up for dissemination nationally through the existing OurFutures delivery platform to primary schools across Australia.

Co-Investigators: Dr Louise Birrell, Professor Nicola Newton, Dr Alyssa Morse,  Professor Philip Batterham, Dr Louise Farrer, Dr Lauren Gardner, Professor Maree Teesson, Professor Cath Chapman and Professor Jennie Hudson.