Pre-Recorded Presentation

Context and aim: Child health and wellbeing is a global priority, critical for preventing chronic disease and mental health disorders, and promoting social, emotional, and educational success. Schools are recognised as key settings for health promotion, but their primary focus remains literacy and numeracy. With increasingly crowded curricula, schools must prioritise which health and wellbeing programs to adopt based on student needs and local context. However, there is limited up-to-date national evidence on which student health and wellbeing issues are currently prioritised in Australian primary schools, or which program characteristics influence adoption. Addressing this gap is essential to support relevant and effective program implementation.
Methods and Analysis: To address this gap, a national cross-sectional survey of Australian primary schools (government, Catholic, independent) was conducted. A sub-sample of 549 schools responded to questions about: 1) their current student health and wellbeing priorities; and 2) the factors influencing adoption of programs. Quantitative analysis showed that schools prioritise social/emotional wellbeing (83%), classroom learning/behaviour (71%) and physical activity (63%). Key factors influencing program adoption included cost (78%), perceived effectiveness (76%) and positive impact on mental health and wellbeing (69%). These findings provide new national insight into school-level priorities and decision-making.
Outcomes: Findings are being used to inform the development and refinement of school-based health and wellbeing programs. By identifying school priorities and adoption drivers, the study provides a framework for aligning program design with school needs. This evidence has informed stakeholder discussions with education departments and program developers.
Future actions: Policymakers, researchers, and developers should use this evidence to ensure programs address school-identified priorities and practical constraints. Ongoing collaboration with the education sector and further research into implementation supports will be key to improving uptake and sustainability of school-based health and wellbeing initiatives.

Primary care and mental health professionals play a key role in supporting those experiencing mental health concerns and suicidal distress. However, outside of clinical care settings, family, friends and carers provide most of the practical and emotional support. Challenges associated with the caring role can contribute to strain, distress and mental health concerns for carers. Supporting carers is critical to preventing the onset or worsening of mental health concerns and suicidality of the carers themselves, as well as building and maintaining their capability to provide effective support.
Primary care and mental health professionals are well placed to identify and offer support to these carers. In health service roles, knowledge about including family and friends in care is increasingly expected, especially in mental health and primary care settings. While involving carers is part of collaborative care models promoted by policies, many staff report a lack of training in this area, hindering effective engagement with family and friends in the care process.
An online training program has been developed to ensure primary care and mental health service providers have the knowledge, skills and confidence to identify, engage and support carers of those experiencing mental health concerns or suicidal distress. This presentation will explore how this training was developed, including the needs identified in consultation with primary care professionals, mental health service providers and those with a lived experience of providing and receiving care. The presentation will also highlight key content of the training and recommended strategies for engaging with carers to ensure their mental health is promoted and protected throughout the often-challenging role of providing care.
This project focuses on the need for carers to be engaged in care and highlights the importance of upskilling those in roles that serve as key touchpoints for this at-risk population.

Abstract
Youth vaping has risen sharply in Queensland, with a 497% increase among 18–29 year olds between 2018 and 2024. At the same time, Quitline Queensland was seeing more young people contact the service, with many presentations involving vaping and broader psychosocial or mental health complexity. This highlighted the need to move beyond a traditional adult cessation model and consider whether the service was equipped to respond in a developmentally appropriate, youth-responsive, and clinically safe way.
Approach
Quitline Queensland adapted both its service model and workforce capability in response to this emerging cohort. Standardised vaping questions were introduced into client records in 2022. In March 2023, Intensive Quit Support eligibility expanded to include exclusive vapers, and in 2024 the program expanded further to include people under 30. Intensive Quit Support involves four tailored counselling calls over 12 weeks, alongside 12 weeks of combination nicotine replacement therapy, with additional calls as needed. To strengthen workforce readiness, all counsellors completed mandatory QUT Foundations of Adolescent and Young Adult Health Care training between May and October 2024. This was followed by a full-day, face-to-face Quitline-specific training, Adapting practice to successfully work with Adolescents and Young Adults, delivered to 35 staff across three groups and co-designed and co-delivered with Dovetail. The training focused on language, rapport, consent, confidentiality, risk, scope, and referral pathways within the Quitline context.
Results
Workforce feedback indicated a 32.35% increase in self-reported confidence following the training. Post-training, 91.2% of staff rated the training as excellent; 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the content was clearly related to working with young people; 97.1% agreed or strongly agreed that the training was engaging and relevant; and 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the content matched their level of experience. Preliminary under-30 vaping evaluation data showed that 73 evaluation surveys were sent and 60 completed, giving an 82% completion rate. Among vaping-only clients at program commencement, 40% reported successfully quitting vaping. Among dual users, 34% reported quitting both smoking and vaping, and a further 21% reported quitting vaping only. Overall, 47% of clients who completed evaluation reported quitting at program close.
Conclusion
These early findings suggest that young people will engage with tailored quit support and that meaningful quit outcomes are achievable within a statewide Quitline model. They also highlight that rising youth vaping requires more than expanded eligibility alone; it requires workforce capability that is practical, youth-responsive, and specific to service context. Adapting Quitline’s service and training model appears to have improved staff readiness and supported clinically worthwhile outcomes for young people. Future directions include ongoing evaluation, refinement of youth-responsive practice, and strengthening integration between quit support and mental health services.

In recent years, Australia’s lived experience workforce has experienced tremendous growth, offering new opportunities to embed recovery-oriented and person-centred care into mental health services. However, with rapid growth comes challenges. Peer workers in multidisciplinary teams can often feel undervalued, isolated from the broader organisation and as though they have no clear pathway for development. Without support, the very workforce that brings hope, empathy and connection risks burnout and disconnection.

For peer work to be effective, safe and sustainable, we need to create an environment where lived experience is not only acknowledged, but championed. To do so meaningfully, this requires structural change and genuine partnership between leadership, people and culture and the lived experience team.

When supporting a lived experience team, organisations must consider the distinct set of values and principles that peer workers are guided by. They must adopt new ways of working, engage in deep listening and ongoing learning, which can only be achieved when you have buy-in from the top and commitment across the organisation.

Join Emily Smith (Peer Work Manager) and Olivia Goodchild (People and Culture Manager) as they discuss how they partner to effectively support the wellbeing, growth and development of ReachOut’s PeerChat team. ReachOut’s PeerChat team has grown by 375% (from 4 to 19) since its launch in 2022. Instrumental to this growth has been the co-design of new leadership roles, clear pathways for development, and wrap-around support that acknowledges the emotional labour of sharing your own story to support others.

Drawing on their expertise, Emily and Olivia will highlight how embedding lived experience and prioritising collaboration can create workplaces where peer workers feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work. Through practical examples, they will show how inclusive dialogue, open conversations and co-designed solutions are strengthening ReachOut’s lived experience workforce.

The phase-out of Australia’s live sheep export industry presents profound social and economic uncertainty for WA farming enterprises. Recognising the increased risk of mental ill-health and suicide in these communities, Holyoake has developed a comprehensive, evidence-informed, community-led wellbeing training initiative to strengthen individual and collective capacity to navigate this change.

Over 18 months, Holyoake will deliver tailored mental health literacy and suicide prevention programs across six regions of Western Australia. Drawing on 25+ years of evidence-based training in the Wheatbelt, Holyoake will offer Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Accidental Counsellor, and AgriBalance, ensuring timely and locally relevant mental health & suicide prevention upskilling. Each community will select the program most suited to its needs, ensuring ownership, engagement, and sustainability.

Participants (including farmers, families, frontline workers, and industry professionals) will gain practical skills across the three complementary programs. MHFA builds capacity to recognise signs of distress, encourage professional help-seeking, and connect individuals to referral pathways. Accidental Counsellor equips participants to conduct difficult conversations, de-escalate crises, and maintain healthy boundaries. Holyoake’s AgriBalance, developed specifically for the agricultural sector, embeds these skills in farming contexts, enabling participants to reframe negative thinking, identify strengths, and apply adaptive coping strategies. Together, these programs deliver culturally relevant, industry-informed tools to strengthen resilience and saferty within farming communities.

The program incorporates pre and post-training evaluation to capture changes in knowledge, confidence, and community capacity. Comparable Holyoake programs have demonstrated significant improvements in mental health literacy, help-seeking, and self-care, with participants reporting greater confidence to support others while safeguarding their own wellbeing.

This presentation will share the design, implementation, and emerging outcomes of this sector-specific model. By empowering communities to choose and apply training most relevant to them, Holyoake demonstrates how evidence-based, community-led interventions can mitigate suicide risk, strengthen resilience, and increase safety in times of industry-wide change.