Drawing on the resilience of Aboriginal children, young people and families is the foundation of the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC) child and adolescent mental health program.
The program combines evidenced based mental health practice with the cultural knowledge and lived experience of Aboriginal staff, clients and families.

Our program team consists of a youth mental health clinician and an Aboriginal youth worker.

Program features:
• Focusing on building trust with community and clients.
• Providing treatment within BADAC, rather than referring to external agencies.
• Working with anyone wanting support, not just those experiencing severe mental illness.
• Including the significant people in clients’ lives, such as family and schools, in assessments and treatment interventions.
• A comprehensive assessment followed by an evidence based intervention e.g. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (C.B.T), Acceptance and Commitment (A.C.T), problem solving, conflict resolution, family counselling and parent work.

Diagnoses of anxiety disorders are most prevalent made followed by depression and externalising disorders. Some clients do not fit diagnostic categories. In these cases, we see clients benefiting from stable nurturing family environments and our role is to validate and strengthen relationships. Before and after Strength and Difficulties questionnaires are used to inform interventions and to evidence outcomes. Data gathered shows improvements in emotional and conduct domains for most clients.

In the first six months of the program we’ve worked with 43 families. It’s early days but initial encounters are promising. We use client outcome data and feedback from stakeholders to evolve our model e.g. we are reducing documentation to make our work more accessible. We will continue to test and develop our model to improve mental health for Aboriginal children and young people in the Ballarat district.