Youth mental health: a framework for maltreatment healing

Project team

Lottie Harris, Research Associate; Professor Daryl Higgins, Institute of Child Protection Studies (Australian Catholic University); Tom Allsop, CEO (PeakCare); Luke Twyford, Principal Commissioner (Queensland Family and Child Commission)

Funding

Queensland Family and Child Commission and PeakCare

Aims

To develop a multi-sector youth mental health framework for healing, applicable to all children and young people across Australia who have suffered maltreatment.

Background

Child maltreatment is a profound and pervasive risk factor for mental health vulnerability across Australia. Its varied impacts are both immediate and enduring, often manifesting as complex, transdiagnostic patterns of distress that defy conventional diagnostic categories. These highly individualised experiences of mental illness challenge the traditional 'medical model' of Australian mental health care, which tends to rely on single-diagnosis classifications and symptom-based interventions.

As a result, children and young people who have experienced maltreatment are frequently overlooked or misclassified within the current suite of national mental health policy frameworks and service delivery structures. These systems are often siloed across child protection, health or disability sectors; they are not designed to recognise or respond to the nuanced mental health needs of the maltreated population. The lack of integrated, trauma-informed approaches limits opportunities for early and holistic healing.

To effectively address this gap, a fundamental shift in both paradigm and practice, across all sectors, is required. Australia's current fragmented and diagnostically focused models must evolve into a coordinated, trauma-informed system of care that is tailored to the complex, multi-faceted realities of maltreated children and young people.

Research questions

1. Which patterns of childhood maltreatment are associated with distinct mental health profiles that require differential service responses to meet those needs?
2. Which components within caregiving, service engagement, and community environments have demonstrated effectiveness in improving mental health outcomes relative to conventional mental health care approaches?
3. What practice, policy, system or service level enablers are required to operationalise the core components of a mental health framework for healing maltreatment?

Project details

This project will contribute to the growing evidence on what policy and practice change is needed to ensure that the complex mental health needs of children and young people who have experienced childhood maltreatment are effectively and proactively addressed. We are developing a national mental health framework grounded in research, practitioner expertise and the lived experiences of children, young people and their caregivers. The framework will drive a whole-of-system response to the complex, transdiagnostic nature of maltreatment-related mental distress.

To shape this work, we are inviting short- and long-term contributions from invested knowledge holders - through our governance group, advisory panels and as research participants.

The project will unfold in three-phases:

1. Build the case for change: analyse Australian Childhood Maltreatment Study data and review existing policy and frameworks to strengthen the evidence for building a new framework.
2. Co-develop the framework: Undertake extensive primary data collection with diverse knowledge holder groups across the country.
3. Translate insights into action: Produce practical tools such as training packages and sector-relevant practice guides that embed the framework into frontline service delivery.

Projected community impact

The framework will provide essential evidence to those responsible for designing, delivering, or coordinating care, to ensure that changes are made in line with best practice. The primary users will be frontline practitioners, service leaders, policymakers, and caregivers who support children and young people affected by maltreatment. This includes professionals across mental health, child protection, disability, and other related sectors. Secondary users include researchers, advocates, and lived-experience advisors who contribute to system reform and knowledge translation.

Over time, the framework will help shift the system from reactive and fragmented to proactive, relational and healing-oriented.

Links

Queensland Family and Child Commission

PeakCare

Project timeline

July 2025 - July 2027

Contact

For more information contact: Lottie Harris