When Lloyd was a year nine student, his anxiety and depression became so bad he could not go to class and eventually dropped out of school.

He stopped sleeping, stayed up late playing games and struggled to maintain connections with the outside world.

“It was mainly my mental health, the bullying that I was dealing with at that time and also culture shock because I just migrated to this country,” Lloyd told AAP.

“I felt like I didn’t belong.”

His family supported him as much as possible but Lloyd did not think he would ever return to class.

That was until his psychiatrist recommended he check out an independent school that helped young adults with mental health concerns finish their education.

The exact number of Australian students who drop out due to their mental health is not known, but the nation’s apparent school retention rate for years seven to eight dropped 1.4 per cent from 2022-23 to 79.1 per cent, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.

Those figures do not account for students moving between education systems or other factors, with a 2023 Senate inquiry hearing efforts to address school refusal were “hampered” by a lack of data.

The committee called for a nationally consistent approach to addressing refusal, including greater flexibility in the education system.

Lloyd said flexibility was the biggest reason why he could finish school at the Hester Hornbrook Academy run by Melbourne City Mission.

“It’s not about attendance and performing well, it’s about doing your best and being at your own pace when it comes to work-related stuff, mainly prioritising your mental health,” he said.

School refusal and mental health issues in students were a major concern even before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Melbourne City Mission social innovations head, Sam Barrett.

“The rate of disengagement is also increasing across the board even post COVID, so it’s not just a COVID issue,” he said.

“About 300,000 young people in Australia aren’t attending school or education or work, so it’s quite a widespread problem.”

Mr Barrett believes the Living Learning program the school runs is an Australia-first, connecting students with medical and mental health support on top of help getting to class or anything else that keeps them engaged.

Eight out of 10 students involved are currently or will soon be working or studying, while three quarters attained literacy and numeracy skills allowing them to pursue technical or further education.

It is being run as a pilot funded by the Victorian government and Mr Barrett is calling on all states to pay attention as his organisation pushes for it to be rolled out around Australia.

“We think there’s application into the public school environment for a program like this to sit in any school environment,” he said.

“We think it would be a really valuable addition.”

Lloyd is now back on his feet with ambitions of travel and studying nursing.

It took him three years of hard work and he encouraged anyone else in a similar situation to keep going.

“Just push through life, because you’ll never know what will happen if you don’t try,” Lloyd said.

 

Rachael Ward
(Australian Associated Press)