By Jill Stark
Three-year-olds will be screened for early signs of mental illness in a new federal government program that uses behaviours such as sleeping with the light on, having temper tantrums or extreme shyness as signs of possible psychological problems.
The ''Healthy Kids Check'' will be predominantly conducted by GPs, with children who show troubling behaviour referred to psychologists or paediatricians.
Colourful children's bedroom.
The program is expected to identify more than 27,000 children who the government claims may benefit from additional support, but who some doctors claim may be wrongly labelled as having a mental illness. While the aim is to prevent mental disorders - 50 per cent of which start in childhood - the Australian Medical Association and some mental health experts fear children may be misdiagnosed or given psychiatric drugs unnecessarily.
''We have to be careful we don't medicalise normal behaviour and that's a real caution with children,'' AMA president Steve Hambleton said. ''There are genuine kids who need extra support to help them integrate into normal kindergartens and classrooms, and a lot of the funding for that is driven by diagnoses, so there's a perverse incentive to diagnose conditions like autism. There are kids who need it but we don't want to make normal kids abnormal.''
However, Professor Frank Oberklaid, chairman of the expert committee appointed by Minister for Mental Health Mark Butler to develop the check, said their priority was to ''first do no harm''.
''The critics are worried that we're going to slap diagnoses on three-year-olds and treat them with drugs, but this is not the point of the exercise,'' he said.
''Many parents and preschool teachers face behaviours in children that are challenging and cause stress and distress. Thankfully many of these are transient, but we can't predict in a particular child which ones are going to disappear and which ones are going to go on and cause mental health problems.''
The test, although not compulsory, will form part of a physical check for developmental problems such as hearing, eyesight and allergies. Previously it was conducted on four-year-olds but has been brought forward a year and, for the first time, will include social and emotional screening. Doctors will receive extra training before the check is introduced in the next financial year.
Announced as part of last year's budget, Fairfax has obtained the first details of the $11 million four-year program. A checklist of potentially troubling behaviours is being finalised and Professor Oberklaid said it would likely include ''externalising'' behaviours such as aggression, difficulty with impulse control and frustration, and trouble interacting with others. ''We'll also look at internalising disorders. [Young children] can get anxious as well.''