BY BONNIE LAXTON-BLINKHORN, KINDICARE

JULY 7, 2022

Research shows that mental wellbeing has a direct impact on an early educator’s ability to deliver high-quality education and care to children. This makes good sense, what is less clear is what steps we can take to improve the mental health of our hard-working and permanently exhausted early education workforce.     

While, the Labor government has committed to implementing some of the recommendations in ACECQA’s National Workforce Review Strategy, this will take time, and as we know staff shortages are just one of the factors challenging the mental wellbeing of early educators.      

While most educators would agree that they love their work and find it rewarding and worthwhile, the fact of the matter is, working in early education is complex and multi-faceted, requiring high levels of skill, communication, and engagement.   

This takes a toll on people physically, and mentally, and is increasingly becoming a concern for managers committed to protecting and improving the health of staff.   

To this end, KindiCare spoke to Nicole Spillman, National Operations Manager at Story House Early Learning, to find out how the mental wellbeing of educators is being scaffolded and supported across their 36 services.    

What can organisations do to safeguard the wellbeing of staff?  

Nicole recently became an accredited Mental Health First Aider after completing training with Mental Health First Aid Australia and says the psychological safety of educators and service managers is a priority at Story House Early Learning.   

“Understanding how common mental health challenges are and knowing that many people are not well informed about how to recognise mental health signs was the catalyst for me to do this training.    

“In Australia, only 46 per cent of people who had a mental illness in the past year received professional help and this is a statistic I want to have some ability to change.”   

As anyone on the floor in an early education and care service knows, working with children and families requires high levels of dedication, and it is important for educators to be able to identify when they need to care for themselves.   

“Our exceptional educators are not performing a transactionary role. They are engaging with little people and adults all day, every day, and the level of energy and commitment required to make these interactions special and meaningful quickly becomes overwhelming if educators don’t take the time for respite, reflection and self-care,” says Nicole.  

Early childhood educators shoulder a heavy burden of responsibility and families, approved providers and regulars expect a lot. Nicole says this expectation increased during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that it has led to some positive change.    

“The COVID landscape provided a layer of complexity on top of the usual operating rhythms in the sector.   

“However, I feel that awareness and acceptance of the importance of identifying and responding to people who need support is more common and accepted – and I do feel that COVID has contributed positively to this acceptance.  We know that for the last 2.5 years it’s been tough for our sector and our people are more aware of their need to self-care.”  

Educators need to be well to deliver the best outcomes for children and this requires them to maintain their mental health and take steps to triage their wellbeing before burnout happens.  

“Our educators can’t perform when their bucket is empty. And they can’t deliver exceptional outcomes for children when they are unable to identify they need support, understand when they need that support, and be supported to be kept accountable to access this support.”    

Story House Early Learning is well aware of the connection between a healthy workforce and better outcomes for children and Nicole’s accreditation as a Mental Health First Aider is testament to their organisational commitment to this goal.   

“The psychological safety of educators and managers in our services is important to me and our organisation and it’s important that we provided training to our service managers, business operations managers and leaders of our business to help support the growing need of nurturing positive mental health.  

What does mental Health First Aid training involve? 

Dr Bronwyn Robson a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainer says most people are familiar with physical first aid training and MHFA takes a similar approach. 

“One in five Australian adults (and one in four teens) will experience a mental health problem in any given year. This means we are all likely to know someone who is struggling.  

“Our early-intervention education courses teach people the skills to recognise when someone is experiencing a mental health problem or crisis, and using our practical 5-step action plan how to assess the situation and respond appropriately.” 

In addition to equipping people with practical skills, Bronwyn says MHFA training reduces the stigma surrounding mental health problems and empowers people to seek help.  

Standard MHFA training, designed for adults supporting adults, takes 12 hours and there are three different ways to participate: face-to-face, fully online or a hybrid model. The blended face-to-face and fully online options include two components: self-paced eLearning, which typically 5 -7 hours and an instructor-led session of 4-5 hours. 

Over the training participants cover a wide range of topics including: 

• the status and impact of mental health in Australia,  
• the signs and symptoms of common mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and substance usage, as well as psychotic illnesses, and in the youth course eating disorders 
• how to provide support during mental health crises such as suicidal thoughts and behaviours, panic attacks and trauma
• how to provide mental health first aid using our practical five-step action plan 
• how to practice mental health first aid conversations  
• knowledge about local referral pathways for professional help 

 

Bronwyn says MHFA training is suitable for anyone and ideally around 10 per cent of staff in every workplace would be trained as Mental Health First Aiders, like Nicole.  

“Teaching is a high-pressured stressful job, so it’s important for people working in education to be able to recognise and respond to a co-worker who is experiencing a mental health problem,” says Bronwyn. 

Back at Story House Nicole says listening carefully to team members is one of the best ways to provide support and she says it is an essential skill for managers seeking to build relationships that are connected and genuine.  

“Taking the time to know your people, to truly understand who they are and what’s important to them, is critical to supporting positive mental health outcomes.   

“The uniqueness of our organisation is our connectedness to our people – it’s one of Story House Early Learning’s values, so the conversations that I enjoy are rich, honest, genuine and connected.   

“When you enjoy this type of relationship, there’s no doubt that any offers to support an educator’s mental health will be accepted genuinely and non-judgementally.”   

Visit Mental Health First Aid Australia to learn more about the training available for educators and the benefits for the children in their care.  

Click here to find your nearest Story House Early Learning Centre on KindiCare >>>