This is the black and white version of the Mission Australia Consent form for children’s mental heath care. Developed in collaboration with the Liverpool Street services of Mission Australia, the UWA Comic Contract Project and Alternative Contracting, it aims to empower children to better understand and remember the terms of their mental health care. Note that we also ask children to actually sign, in order to help their empowerment. There is also a colourised version, but the black and white ones comes with crayons for colouring in during the initial consultation where terms are being explained. Colouring in is proven to aid memory and attentiveness. We have yet to collect the longitudinal data on this contract, but are very excited to see if it helps to make children feel more involved in the process. Initial data from the Children’s Parliament in Melbourne, collected by UWA, is very encouraging. 

 
Prof Camilla Baasch Andersen
University of Western Australia, School of Law