A new tool is hoping to help parents to identify signs of developing mental illness in their children sooner.

The Children’s Wellbeing Continuum includes four anchor points for mental health: good, coping, struggling and overwhelmed.

Professor of paediatrics at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Frank Oberklaid, says the goal is to detect the signs before they develop into established mental health problems.

“The idea is that adults in that child’s life will be using that to identify those kids that are struggling at an early stage,” he told Ross and Russel.

“One of the reasons we think they don’t get help earlier is because of parent stigma.”

Press PLAY below to hear about the tool + kids mental health