About Us
The NSW School-Link Initiative has been addressing mental health in schools since 1999. The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) has recognised the potential to further develop the existing School-Link Initiative by focusing on students with an intellectual disability.
In 2009, the CHW School-Link Project, in partnership with the Department of Education and MH-CYP scoped the professional needs of school counsellors of students with an intellectual disability in NSW government Schools for Specific Purposes in the following three areas:
1) Assisting in the pathways to care for students with mental health problems and disorders.
2) Supporting the implementation of school based mental health promotion, prevention programs, and early intervention programs.
3) The training and education needs of school counsellors.
The result of the scoping project was funding from the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office (MHDAO) for a four year CHW School-Link Initiative that we will proudly implement with our partners at MH-CYP, The NSW Department of Education and the previous Ageing Disability and Home Care, Department of Human Services NSW (ADHC).