Dr Simone Darling wins triple grant boost for next phase of MHiPS

Funding from The Ian Potter Foundation, the Victorian Department of Education and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing will support national expansion, program evaluation and new long-term research into the impact of MHiPS.

MCRI Mental Health Research & Policy Group Principal Research Fellow Dr Simone Darling

MHiPS launched in 2020 as a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing developed by MCRI in partnership with the University of Melbourne. The program has since expanded from 10 pilot schools to all Victorian government and low-fee non-government primary schools and is now being piloted in Queensland.

“MHiPS was developed to address a major gap in Australia’s response to children’s mental health, where difficulties often go unnoticed until they begin to affect learning, relationships and wellbeing,” Dr Darling said.

“Embedding support in primary schools means children can be identified and helped earlier. The next important step is understanding whether that early support continues to make a difference over time, as children move through school and into adolescence.”

The Victorian Department of Education grant of $600,000 will support the next phase of MHiPS monitoring and evaluation from 2026 to 2028, building on the program’s statewide expansion. The evaluation will examine how the program is working in schools over time, including how it supports staff, strengthens whole-school wellbeing approaches and improves outcomes for students.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing funding of $4.89 million will support MCRI to establish and lead a national MHiPS coordination centre over two years. The centre will help governments, education systems, schools and delivery partners across Australia adopt and adapt MHiPS in ways that suit their local communities. A key focus will be making sure the program can support regional, rural and remote schools.

The Ian Potter Foundation grant of $600,000 will support MCRI to build partnerships and capability for national expansion of MHiPS over three years. This project will fund a National Partnerships and Implementation Lead who will work with governments, education systems and local partners across Australia, helping more states and territories adopt, tailor and implement MHiPS successfully. This new funding brings The Ian Potter Foundation's support for MHiPS to more than $2 million over nine years.

"There is growing interest in MHiPS across Australia, but implementing the model can be complex," Dr Darling said.

“By improving collaboration across sectors and helping jurisdictions learn from each other's experiences, the project will increase access to early mental health support for children in the settings where they learn and grow.”

“Our team is grateful for these investments that will enable us to strengthen MHiPS for the long term by building the evidence for what works and the partnerships needed to support national scale,” Dr Darling said.

Collectively, these investments will help improve MHiPS training and support, reach more schools across Australia and build a consistent evidence-informed approach to early mental health support nationally.

Read more about Dr Simone Darling's work, and the MHiPS program.