Children and Young People with Mental Illness
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: I ask the Minister for Health, representing the Minister for Education and Training, a question without notice. Is the Minister aware of an American report authored by the Commission on Children at Risk, a panel of leading children’s doctors, neuroscientists, research scholars and youth service professionals, entitled “Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities”? Is the Minister aware that the report has found that children are biologically hardwired for enduring connections to others and for moral and spiritual meaning? Given that on conservative estimates 14 per cent of Australian children and young people suffer from mental illnesses, and given the recent debate about the degradation of standards in civility, will the Minister consider the incorporation of programs into the school curriculum that require children and young people to participate in community groups?
The Hon. JOHN HATZISTERGOS: I will refer the matter to the Minister for Education and Training.
