The Kids Research Institute Australia’s Head of Early Neurodevelopment and Mental Health, Dr Amy Finlay-Jones, has been awarded the prestigious Healthway Fellowship for 2021, for a project aimed at improving mental health interventions in children under the age of five.
The project will focus on identifying the early signs in babies, toddlers and young children which could indicate that they are more likely to develop a mental illness later in life. Dr Finlay-Jones said early intervention in mental health was crucial.
“At a conservative estimate, we would expect around 80 thousand children to be experiencing mental health difficulties in Western Australia alone, every year,” she said.
We also know that these difficulties are preventable. Unfortunately, our current system is not well equipped to identify these early signs of vulnerability or to provide the support children need.
One of the key areas the project will examine is ‘chronic early irritability’ in babies and toddlers. Dr Finlay-Jones said certain behaviours were often early warning signs, even in very young babies.
“These are children who have extreme and prolonged tantrums, and really struggle to settle down and self-regulate,” she said.
We know that this can be a sign that they might be more vulnerable to developing mental health problems later in life, as well as being something that’s incredibly stressful for families to have to deal with.
“They are the children that we really want to make sure receive targeted supports because we do know that with supports those difficulties can be managed and we can get those children on the right mental health and developmental track.”
Dr Finlay Jones will partner with community organisations Ngala and the Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre, to develop a roadmap for promoting equity in early child development, so that all families have equal access to support from as early as possible.
The Healthway Fellowship is worth more than $398,565 over three years and will be administered by The University of Western Australia.
Health Minister Roger Cook said the fellowship will help to build the health promotion research workforce in WA.
“Investing in early intervention strategies is key to providing children the best opportunity for good mental health and wellbeing,” Minister Cook said.
“Dr Finlay-Jones has the appropriate expertise, knowledge and well-established networks to undertake the project, and we look forward to the research outcomes benefitting Western Australian children and their families.”