ORIGINS sub-project, The Flourishing Child, has received a $746,051 grant from the Medical Research Future Fund to develop a Flourishing Assessment and Pathway Tool to address gaps in early intervention for children's mental health.
ORIGINS is Australia's largest longitudinal birth cohort study, following the health of 10,000 families to investigate the origins of chronic disease to ensure every child has the best opportunity to flourish.
Co-Director and Chief Investigator of The Flourishing Child, Dr Jackie Davis, said that provision of accessible, targeted supports for parents in their child's early years was critical to reduce the rising number of children entering school with social and emotional delays, including undiagnosed neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health issues.
"Our hope in creating this assessment and tool is to shift the focus in children's physical and mental health from treatment to prevention," Dr Davis said.
"This tool will empower parents to seek help at the right time, in the right place, with the right resources, aiming to reduce developmental issues over the course of their children’s lives."
Through extensive consultations with early childhood researchers and families, including those with neurodivergent children or those with chronic conditions, ORIGINS has defined 'flourishing' as a measure of child wellbeing that refers to the extent to which a child experiences love, safety, positive lifestyle, fun and happiness.
Robyn Power, whose two children are ORIGINS participants, shared her frustration with the overwhelming and often contradictory parenting advice available.
"Social media and parenting websites all say different things, like when to take your child to the doctor, what to do in certain situations, when to act and when not to,” Ms Power said.
“It creates so much anxiety as a parent."
Dr Davis said the intention of the tool was to improve parental efficacy in identifying childhood flourishing, increase parental confidence in knowing when and how to seek help, increase uptake of existing support services.
ORIGINS is working to advocate for early intervention and prevention to halt the rates of growing mental health concerns in children.
"Within our existing ORIGINS community in the Wanneroo and Joondalup community, we'll co-design a Flourishing Assessment to provide information on the child's flourishing markers to their parent or caregiver," Dr Davis said.
"Once completed, we will develop and test a digital Pathway Tool which will direct users to a wide range of information such as links to evidence based digital applications, standard community services, tip sheets and websites."
Once developing and testing is complete, ORIGINS hopes to expand the availability of the tool to the wider community and adapt it to regional and diverse populations.