[Music] so in relation to children's health mental health is part of health so both mental health and physical health is referred to in the national quality standard when we're referring to children's health so bu can actually put a spotlight on mental health aspect of the broader concept of health so by engaging through bu and learning reflecting and acting together you can actually improve children's mental health and well-being whilst at your service but also out in the community a good mind a positive mind starts with good food okay you're gonna eat well good exercise and that's part of that quality area too in the national quality standard but for us in bu we see it as a protective factor physical play and ensuring that you creating those opportunities for children to to to go out and engage in play play i can't even emphasize enough how important play is so bu can really help in terms of children's health and also children's health and safety then you can help you to ensure that your service is not just a physically safe space for children but also an emotionally safe space and what does it mean to be an emotionally safe space for children at the service so whilst mental health isn't explicitly mentioned in the national quality standard any reference to children's health and safety is also about mental health and emotional well-being and emotional safety so rest and relaxation is embedded into every day's routines as well as the environment that we provide so within each of the inside environments we do have what we call a calm space so it's a a space that children can take them to at any time of the day um and just be with themselves by themselves sometimes with a few other children but it is that calm space we do also have that calm space outside as well it's important for where ever children to be to have access to that you know time alone we also have during our orientation that information for families that supports you know children's need for that rest it doesn't have to be sleep but we all need to take that time out for ourselves so it's about learning to respect our own bodies as well as respecting others and you know if we're not needing to rest we still need that quiet time a holistic approach to children's health and physical well-being is really important for children's development and learning because childhood development is dynamic it's interconnected but it's also holistic and early childhood development begins at conception as we all know and encompasses physical social emotional cognitive language and sensory motor development so bu has a range of tools that you can utilize in planning for for example for assessment and rating so bu's implementation and reflection tool is a fantastic self-assessment tool to find out where you're at now in supporting mental health at your service through engaging with that tool with the reflective statements also coming up with a rating against those 28 statements you could then decide where your strengths are and the things that you're doing really well and also identify areas for either a new focus or a continued focus so that information in the implementation and reflection tool can be transferred into your quality improvement plan so bus provided us with the common language and common knowledge so that we can confidently respond to any critical incidences that might have occurred also allows us to reflect together to help prevent any incidences that potentially might occur through bu educators and whole of learning communities can learn about the key underlying concept that is underneath bu which is risk and protective factors so when thinking about critical incidents that happen in your service if educators have a really sound knowledge of protective factors they will know what it is their role to do in relation to building those protective factors also with that knowledge of risk factors knowing that children that may experience a particular event as traumatic will know that that's a risk factor for children's mental health and it may be presenting on top of a range of other risk factors for an individual or group of children so with that knowledge they'll know that it's really important both in the immediate short term and long term after a critical incident that they act and respond in relation to supporting children's well-being so for example if an educator has engaged with bu they will know that warm and responsive relationships with educators are a protective factor for children who may have experienced trauma or a critical incident so it would be a prompt to ensure that that child's experience when they are at the learning early learning service that they are experiencing warm and responsive interactions with all staff members you
