About the workshop

'Meet Jessica' is a workshop based on an animation video to raise school staff's awareness about the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The workshop aims to help education professionals:

• understand that students with an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD) are more likely to have additional mental health problems and challenging behaviours
• identify students who may need help (what to notice)
• build on existing strategies for supporting students in the classroom
• know where to direct students who need additional assistance.

Workshop content and resources

The animation depicts a student with special needs in a mainstream school, and shows examples of school and classroom adjustments to improve the positive mental health and wellbeing of students with a disability.

The animation along with the resources below introduce and build on reasonable adjustments that schools can implement to prevent or manage mental health behaviours of concern. 

The animation was developed in collaboration with The Children’s Hospital at Westmead School-Link Initiative and Department of Psychological Medicine, the NSW Department of Education, and Statewide Behaviour Intervention Service and NSW Department of Family and Community Services. It was produced by Hackett Films. 

For more information, please contact SCHN-CHW-SchoolLink@health.nsw.gov.au.