Queen’s Birthday Honours List: Youth mental health expert Donna Cross awarded Medal of the Order of Australia

For child health advocate and academic Donna Cross, recognition of the importance of children’s mental health as Australia emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic is more significant than any individual accolade.

Renowned for her extensive research on school and cyber bullying, Professor Cross is a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to youth mental health and wellbeing.

She said it was gratifying to see mental health for children being recognised as important.

“Particularly during this time when perhaps we’re seeing some of the worst rates at the youngest ages for the longest duration then we’ve seen in a long time, and the urgent need for evidence to address that,” she said.

A director in health promotion and education research at Telethon Kids’ Institute since 2014, Professor Cross said the pandemic had caused immense emotional distress in young people.

There was an urgent need to build children’s resilience, sense of belonging and emotional regulation to help them reconnect.

“There’s really a lot of work that we need to do to catch up the children that have missed three years of their life,” she said.

“All aspects of their social and emotional development that have been harmed as a result of not being able to spend time with their friends, and for little kids not seeing smiling faces because of masks.”

Professor Cross counted her research into social and emotional development in children, including its impact on academic attainment and wellbeing, and bullying prevention among her top achievements.

“We were the first research group in the world to look at cyber bullying and the harms associated with that, and particularly what to do about it,” she said.

She said plaudits were often given for amazing discoveries or treatment for children experiencing health problems, but there wasn’t often acknowledgement for health promotion initiatives.

“Because they have such a sleeper effect, you don’t really see the benefit until tens of years later,” she said.

But she was still “incredibly surprised” to have been nominated.

“I always feel embarrassed with individual awards because I’ve worked with an extraordinary team, and the work that I’ve done is the work of the team,” she said. “It’s obviously an extraordinary privilege and honour to be given such an award.”