Dr Shannon Morton
Child & Adolescent PsychiatristPresenting in Sydney and Melbourne
Keynote Presentation: It’s all about the Flex: Breaking the Hex of School Refusal
The 2023 Senate Inquiry report into School Refusal is out, and the stats are grim. More than half of grade 1 to 10 students in Australia attended less than 90% of Semester 1 in 2022. Why are so many taking off one or more days a fortnight? More than just post-COVID apathy, the Senate inquiry recommendations highlight the devastating impact of poor access to early assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health conditions, neurodiversity, and learning disorders. As our under-resourced and stretched health and education sectors buckle under the impacts of staff shortages, burn-out, and rising costs of living, do we have a generation of youth in the margins, opting out of education? How do we best cater to those outside the bell curve, and bring them back into the fold? Will technology come to the rescue, and give schools more options to successfully target the individuals who need it the most? Will all schools need to become “flexi-schools” to re-engage this generation of young people?
Dr Shannon Morton
Dr Shannon Morton is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Clinical Director and Founder of The Kooky Clinic, and The Hype! ADHD Centre, the first “Lived Experience” ADHD clinic of its kind in Australia. She specialises in innovative approaches to mental health care, and creating inclusive environments for neurodiverse folk. She has been running full day “By Hook or By Crook” school refusal workshops for educators through Propsych, and has developed a comprehensive 360 degree clinical tool, “Mission Possible: School Re-Entry Action Plan”, to assist schools with developing a cost-effective and tailored individual support plan for young people most at risk of school refusal and disengagement.