One of the best ways to help your service meet the needs of multicultural Australians is to follow examples of best practice.
The Embrace Project is collecting examples of providers who have policies and methods in place to ensure they are culturally responsive, inclusive and diverse in their services.
Region: Eastern Melbourne
What: Wellbeing and mental health literacy workshops for a Chin refugee community
Best practice domain:
- Improve mental health literacy
Brief overview
Neami National and Migrant Information Centre (Eastern Melbourne) (MIC) collaborated to develop mental health workshops for young people in the Victorian Chin Baptist Church (VCBC) community.
Consultation with community leaders explored the community’s context, needs, and considerations to ensure culturally and spiritually safe outcomes.
Click here to read the full case study: Case Study - Supporting Wellbeing and Mental Health Literacy in a Melbourne Chin Refugee Community
Region: South Eastern Sydney
What: Providing mindfulness courser in Arabic, Greek, Macedonian and Mandarin
Best practice domain:
- Accessible and appropriate services and resources
- Addressing the needs of emerging groups
Brief overview
These courses will be co-facilitated by a Bilingual Peer Educator and a Bilingual counsellor. Mindfulness meditation is proven to be an effective approach for people to support mental health recovery and improve overall wellbeing.
Region: South West Sydney
What: Improving the mental wellbeing of Arabic speaking refugees
Best practice domain:
- Accessible and appropriate services and resources
- Addressing the needs of emerging groups
- Improve mental health literacy
Brief overview
The Arabic Mental Health Promotion Program targets newly arrived Arabic speaking refugees who are attending Adult Migrant English Programs (AMEP) or other resettlement programs. The program seeks to improve mental health literacy of participants and focuses on improving awareness and understanding key components
Region: NSW
What: HYPE (Helping Young People to Excel), program to supports young people aged 12 to 24 from multicultural backgrounds, including new arrivals, to obtain new skills and knowledge, increase self-esteem and make social connections.
Best practice domain:
- Addressing the needs of emerging groups
Brief overview
Macarthur Diversity Services has designed an eight-week youth program called HYPE (Helping Young People to Excel) to help young people excel in areas such as education, employment, training, health and fitness.
The program supports young people aged 12 to 24 from multicultural backgrounds, including new arrivals, to obtain new skills and knowledge, increase self-esteem and make social connections. It expects to enhance their academic, physical, social and mental wellbeing.
Please let us know if you encounter a provider who are employing effective strategies to improve the wellbeing of their multicultural communities.
Region: NSW
What: Developed an Arabic Psychological Health Resource and launched it with a Arabic language panel, entirely in Arabic
Best practice domain:
- Addressing the needs of emerging groups
Brief overview
An Arabic Psychological Health Resource in the form of a collection of videos. These videos aim to raise awareness both of the rate and commonality of mental illness within the community and of resources and treatments that are available. To launch this resource BEING held an Arabic language panel on psychological health in Rockdale.
The panel featured five speakers….and was run entirely in Arabic.
Region: National
What: Resources resource for professionals when discussing suicide, and covers specific matters to be aware of when working with CALD individuals, families and communities.
Best practice domain:
- Addressing the needs of emerging groups
- Accessible and appropriate services and resources
Brief overview
This resource provides some practical tips for professionals to refer to when talking about suicide with CALD individuals, families and communities. The following information is intended to supplement the existing Conversations Matter resources and has been designed for people working in professional or leadership roles with communities in a range of settings.
This resource was developed through consultation with CALD community members and professionals, and in partnership with the Transcultural Mental Health Centre and Mental Health Commission of New South Wales.
If your service has a practice in place that may be of use to others, we would love to hear about it and include it here.
To share a best practice example with the Embrace Project Team, please email us at multicultural@mhaustralia.org or call us on 02 6285 3100.