A Youth Mental Health Framework for Maltreatment Healing: Early project findings for the child welfare and mental health sectors

Children and young people who have experienced maltreatment are three times more likely to develop a mental health disorder than their peers. With more than 60% of Australians reporting childhood maltreatment and 75% of mental ill‑health emerging before age 25, maltreatment is a critical feature of the youth mental health landscape.

Yet Queensland’s mental health and child welfare systems were not well designed for the trauma‑driven, transdiagnostic and chronic presentations that maltreated children experience resulting in many young people falling through wide systemic gaps.

That’s why PeakCare and The Queensland Child and Family Commission, with the Institute of Child Protection Studies (ACU) are developing A Youth Mental Health Framework for Maltreatment Healing; a multi‑sectoral framework that defines the system conditions required for effective early mental health intervention for young people affected by trauma.

Join our upcoming webinar to explore:

• Why early mental health responses for maltreated young people demand a different system design to current practice

• What our national survey is revealing about system-level resources and conditions practitioners say are essential for maltreated children

• The emerging elements of our multi‑sectoral framework built specifically for maltreatment‑related mental health needs, and

• How leaders and decision‑makers can shape the next phase of this work

A Teams link to join us for this webinar will be distributed via email prior to the event.