Mental health initiative shows benefits for educators and children

Most educators surveyed about their use of the ‘Be You’ mental health resource felt they could help children and young people handle challenging situations, new research has found.

Where educators were highly engaged with Be You, there were also greater signs of resilience, and children’s learning and social development.

The findings are among many in a comprehensive evaluation of the national initiative. Be You is aimed at equipping educators to foster positive, inclusive and responsive learning communities in supporting children’s mental health from birth to 18 years.

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted the evaluation for Beyond Blue and its delivery partners – Early Childhood Australia (ECA) and headspace.

Be You is part of the Australian Government’s National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health program. Delivered mainly online, the program provides registered users with resources, webinars and professional development, as well as guidance from ECA and headspace consultants. Currently, 72% of schools and 37% of early learning services are registered with Be You.

ACER’s report, Be You Evaluation 2021 – 2023, shows how educators used Be You over a period that included the pandemic, floods and bushfires, and ongoing concerns about educator and student wellbeing.

As part of the research, ACER surveyed 2093 users, including pre-service students, educators, principals and service leaders, teachers, out-of-school care and specialist or support staff.

Overall, more than 90% of users reported they could recognise early signs of social, emotional or behavioural concerns, and help children and young people to handle challenging situations.

Importantly, 80% of educators said they ‘actively helped families whose children were experiencing social, emotional and behavioural issues’. 

Benefits for highly engaged learning communities

While the research shows most early learning services and schools (learning communities) were being reached, engagement levels varied.

Notably, learning communities with staff who were highly engaged with Be You reported stronger benefits than learning communities with less-engaged staff.

For example, a greater proportion (4% more) of educators who were highly engaged in Be You reported that all students were taught social-emotional and resilience skills.

Additionally, 79% of educators who were highly engaged felt able to help their learning community respond and recover from a critical incident such as a death or natural disaster. Only 70% of users who were less engaged felt the same way.

Highly engaged educators were defined as those who completed modules and/or training webinars, including team leaders with the role of driving implementation.

Educator wellbeing

Report authors noted that Be You had responded well to educator needs in a difficult time, including by introducing an Educator Wellbeing page.

More than a quarter of surveyed educators reported using the resources and most consultants considered them ‘moderately or highly effective’.

‘This was reaffirming, given reports of significant mental health and wellbeing struggles within the education workforce’ and ‘suggests that Be You resources were hitting the mark,’ the report notes.

Highly engaged users of Be You were significantly more likely to have positive wellbeing.

While, overall, 65% of surveyed users had felt good about daily life, 55% had felt active and ‘vigorous about their day’ and 48% had been waking up feeling fresh and rested; an additional 4% of those who were highly engaged had felt positive across each of these categories.

Larger proportions of educators who were highly engaged over a long period (than those who weren’t) believed Be You professional learning helped increase their resilience (12% more) and develop strategies and improve the ways they interacted with children and families (21% more).

Student wellbeing 

Researchers drew on data from ACER’s Social-Emotional Wellbeing Survey (SEW) to make comparisons with how students were faring in schools using the Be You program with those in schools that weren’t.

Using responses from 68,465 primary students and 14,704 secondary students between 2020 and 2021, they identified ‘small positive differences’ in the proportion of students in active Be You schools developing social, emotional and learning skills.

Data from SEW and NAPLAN in 2021 was also used to show the relationship between student wellbeing and academic achievement.

‘Regardless of year level or being in primary or secondary school, the evidence was clear,’ the report says. ‘Higher levels of wellbeing were positively associated with higher levels of numeracy and literacy achievement.’

Committing to better mental health in learning communities

The user survey showed 75% of educators felt Be You was helping their learning community to thrive while 21% felt it was not having an impact, or ‘not yet’.

Overall, 86% of surveyed educators listed time in their top 3 barriers to implementing the program.

ACER’s researchers recognised that ‘driving whole learning community improvement is complex and requires time, community buy-in, and expert support’.

Their recommendations for enhancing the Be You initiative included improving representation of diversity in content and adaptability of resources, better training for ‘action leaders’ and a refreshed website and platform to make it more user-friendly.

See the full evaluation report by Dr Katherine Dix, Dr Tamara Van Der Zant and Toby Carslake in ACER's Research Repository, and read Beyond Blue's response on the Beyond Blue website.  

More information

ACER conducts research concerning mental health and emotional and social wellbeing as part of its work to ensure every learner can succeed. For more research in this area, including research on educator wellbeing, visit our research repository.

If you need immediate mental health support, the Beyond Blue Support Service is available 24 hours/7 days a week on 1300 22 4636, or via webchat or email (response within 24 hrs) at www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support.  

Lifeline can be reached on 13 11 14, or via text on 0477 13 11 14.

You can find more help numbers here.