The Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) reinforced what many in the child and family sector had long suspected – most children and young people (62%) experience at least one form of abuse or neglect before the age of eighteen.

From a wellbeing perspective, we know that these children are more than twice as likely to develop mental health disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and problematic alcohol consumption.

Trauma prevention and early intervention of child maltreatment approaches are critical to the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Drawing on the expertise of Professor Daryl Higgins, a key researcher in the ACMS, and Shankari Sundaram, a counsellor at Rebuild – Relationships Australia South Australia, this webinar will outline strategies that practitioners, organisations and systems can use to contribute to trauma prevention and early intervention.

This webinar will help you:

• navigate preventative and early intervention conversations with children and young people
• support children and young people’s safety in your practice and embed this principle across organisations and systems
• develop your ability to support children, young people and parents to describe experiences of abuse and neglect and support them in early recovery.

Target audience

This webinar is intended for all practitioners in health, social and community services who have contact with children and young people.

This webinar is co-produced by CFCA and Emerging Minds in a series focusing on children’s mental health. They are working together as part of the Emerging Minds: National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health, which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing under the National Support for Child and Youth Mental Health Program.