Victorian public school students battling mental health issues will soon have access to on-campus, professional support.
From mid-July, the first schools will get access to mental health professionals such as psychologists, mental health nurses and social workers under a $51.2 million state government election promise.
"This is not a cost to the budget but an investment in a much healthier student body, changing lives, ultimately saving lives potentially as we deal with some very difficult circumstances around teenage suicide," Premier Daniel Andrews said on Wednesday.
"I'm very confident this is exactly what's needed in an increasingly complex world, providing vulnerable Victorians and particularly teenagers the care and support they need."
From term three, high schools in Melbourne's southeast will be the first given funding to employ the professionals they need up to five days a week.
Elwood college, where Mr Andrews made the announcement, will receive support two-and-a-half days a week.
Assistant principal Todd Asensio said the program would be a help not just to students but teachers who were often called upon to guide pupils through tumultuous times.
The program will next be expanded to Victoria's southwest in term four and progressively rolled out across the state in an expansion of the already-existing doctors-in-schools program.
The government says the program will help students overcome current difficulties and also suggest how to get help outside of school hours.
"If you know young children in schools, it's sometimes hard to reach out and reaching out to an external service can be a barrier," the Education Department's manager of student support services Monika Fritz told reporters.
"This initiative is placing direct counselling and early intervention services within the schools directly for students."
Mr Andrews said if the current state royal commission into mental health recommends expanding support in schools, including primary schools, his government would do so.
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