The Invisible School Bag: Making Sense of Mental Health in the Classroom

Event Details

Best available research indicates that one in seven Australian children and adolescents have mental health difficulties. In essence, these problems can come to school in an ‘invisible school bag’ that teachers – and sometimes even the students themselves – are not aware of. In fact, teachers usually have to manage these problems long before they are brought to the attention of a mental health professional.

In this presentation, Dr Burns will discuss why helping students with mental health difficulties is the role of every classroom teacher; provide instruction on how to tell if a student may have an invisible school bag; and provide a framework for what schools – and classroom teachers – can do to help maximise educational outcomes for these students.

Guest Speaker

Dr John Burns

Dr John Burns is a clinical psychologist who has spent the last 20 years working ‘at the coalface‘ with young people at Shore in North Sydney. His special interest is in the role of schools in identifying and intervening with young people with mental health difficulties. He is the current Convener of the Australian Psychological Society’s Psychologists in Schools Interest Group and is an Honorary Associate of the Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University.