Our vision is to empower every student with the resources for sustainable wellbeing and learning. For every student to continue on their journey through education and be prepared for rewarding lives we have developed special programs to help our students to achieve their full potential.
Access
Whilst seeking treatment in the Acute Adolescent Unit (AAU) the educational needs of the young people are delivered using an integrated approach – a partnership between Redbank House and Redbank School.
The journey of recovery for a young person in AAU may include educational recovery – a process of returning to a previous state of wellbeing and performing to past standards in learning and minimising the impact and affect mental illness can have on a young person’s educational trajectory.
Planning for a young person’s education post discharge starts at the time of admission and remains a focus throughout admission. A core component of this is ensuring young people have access to optimal support to continue their journey of educational recovery post discharge.
A classroom setting within the unit acts as a safe and supportive learning experience for students as they progress through their journey of recovery. School integration plays an important role in a young person’s recovery. The class program is a small group wellbeing focused education program, implemented in the context of the young person’s health care plan.
Longer hospital stays require additional educational planning meetings to provide ongoing opportunities for the young person, with the support of parents/carers and mental health staff, to have a voice and make decisions about their education and educational trajectory.
Education focused conversations between education staff, the young person, the young person’s parent/carer and mental health specialists assists and supports education staff to identify and meet the learning and wellbeing needs of the individual whilst ensuring the needs of other students accessing school integration in the classroom are considered and addressed.
ASPIRE program
The ASPIRE program caters for students who aspire to return to school at time of discharge from AAU. The young person’s educational recovery continues post discharge from AAU, returning to school as soon as possible after discharge of hospital is optimal for the young person’s recovery if the young person and the school is ready.
The ASPIRE program offers a short term education program and intensive educational support for young people who, at time of discharge, are not ready to return to school or for whom the school needs time to ensure optimal support for the student on their return to school.
The ASPIRE program offers a short term wellbeing focused education program and intensive educational support for young people identified as on a trajectory toward an acute hospital admission and intensive educational support may assist the Enable team in changing the young person’s trajectory toward hospitalisation.
The specific purpose is to build the capacity of our students to engage in the world around them. Their world as adolescents includes school, improve their capacity to access and engage in education.
Here are the highlights of the program.
- A program providing intensive support for students to engage in education whilst managing the symptoms of mental illness and difficulties related to their mental health.
- Staff work collaboratively with key stakeholders to provide optimal support for students to contextualise therapeutic strategies in a school setting.
The ENGAGE program is for students referred to ASPIRE through the learning support team (LST).
EMPOWER program
A program for students to be empowered with education whilst managing the symptoms of mental illness.
School staff work collaboratively with key stakeholders to provide optimal support for students to contextualise therapeutic strategies in a school setting and overcome the mental health-related difficulties that are impacting on their capacity to access education in a community school setting.
The EMPOWER program has one class for students referred to ASPIRE through the LST.
One of the classes is for secondary school aged students experiencing social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties that impact on their own and others capacity for learning in a mainstream school or mainstream school support class.
Students are eligible for placement if they have been identified as requiring intensive support and confirmed by the department as having an emotional disturbance. Students must have a Department of Education Disability Confirmation Sheet (DCS) with a primary disability code MH1, MH2 or MH3.
To ensure enrolment in the school’s support class is successful for the student and a Department of Education Offer of Placement. The school and the local educational services team work together to ensure students offered placement have a Disability Confirmation Sheet code MH1 indicating the student is experiencing internalising behaviours, symptoms of an underlying mental illness.