Working as a Culturally Competent Mental Health Practitioner (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
I welcome the publication of WorkingTogether:AboriginalandTorresStraitIslanderMental HealthandWellbeingPrinciplesandPracticeas an important contribution to the ongoing struggle for the achievement of health equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and I thank the Australian Government for funding and initiating the project under the 2006 $1.9 billion COAG Mental Health Initiative. This book stands to make an enormous contribution to the mental health of Indigenous Australians, for so long a subject bedevilled by the inappropriate application of non-Indigenous models of mental health, models that so often failed to account for our unique experiences and the significantly higher burden of poor mental health found in our communities. Indeed, for many years there have been calls for new approaches to Indigenous mental health that identify and acknowledge what makes us different from non-Indigenous Australians-the resilience that our cultures give us on one hand, and, on the other, the collective experience of racism, the disempowerment of colonisation and its terrible legacy, and the assimilationist policies that separated us from our families, our culture, our language and our land. This book is to be welcomed for meeting this long overdue need. I am particularly pleased that the editors-Nola Purdie, the Australian Council for Education Research and Pat Dudgeon and Roz Walker, the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research-ensured that Indigenous mental health experts led the development of each chapter to ensure that Indigenous voices are heard, loud and clear, in its pages. Designed for practitioners and mental health workers, as well as students training to be mental health workers, I am confident that the publication of WorkingTogether:Aboriginaland TorresStraitIslanderMentalHealthandWellbeingPrinciplesandPractice marks a watershed in the treatment of Indigenous mental health issues. I urge all students of health and education to read this book to gain a real appreciation of the issues that may confront you when working with Indigenous people wherever they live in Australia. This publication stands to make a substantial contribution to the achievement of Indigenous health equality in Australia as we move into the 21st century. I commend it to you.
2014
I welcome the publication of WorkingTogether:AboriginalandTorresStraitIslanderMental HealthandWellbeingPrinciplesandPracticeas an important contribution to the ongoing struggle for the achievement of health equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and I thank the Australian Government for funding and initiating the project under the 2006 $1.9 billion COAG Mental Health Initiative. This book stands to make an enormous contribution to the mental health of Indigenous Australians, for so long a subject bedevilled by the inappropriate application of non-Indigenous models of mental health, models that so often failed to account for our unique experiences and the significantly higher burden of poor mental health found in our communities. Indeed, for many years there have been calls for new approaches to Indigenous mental health that identify and acknowledge what makes us different from non-Indigenous Australians-the resilience that our cultures give us on one hand, and, on the other, the collective experience of racism, the disempowerment of colonisation and its terrible legacy, and the assimilationist policies that separated us from our families, our culture, our language and our land. This book is to be welcomed for meeting this long overdue need. I am particularly pleased that the editors-Nola Purdie, the Australian Council for Education Research and Pat Dudgeon and Roz Walker, the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research-ensured that Indigenous mental health experts led the development of each chapter to ensure that Indigenous voices are heard, loud and clear, in its pages. Designed for practitioners and mental health workers, as well as students training to be mental health workers, I am confident that the publication of WorkingTogether:Aboriginaland TorresStraitIslanderMentalHealthandWellbeingPrinciplesandPractice marks a watershed in the treatment of Indigenous mental health issues. I urge all students of health and education to read this book to gain a real appreciation of the issues that may confront you when working with Indigenous people wherever they live in Australia. This publication stands to make a substantial contribution to the achievement of Indigenous health equality in Australia as we move into the 21st century. I commend it to you.
Australasian Psychiatry, 2006
Baseline measures of AIMHI NT in 2003, and findings from two clinical file audits (1996 and 2001) at Royal Darwin Hospital inpatient unit are presented. The files were audited for a range of assessment and treatment interventions. Results: The audits reveal significant improvements in Aboriginal inpatient care between 1995 and 2001. Conclusion: Aboriginal mental health workers provide essential services as cross-cultural brokers in the setting of Aboriginal mental illness. The improvements in care found in this file audit coincide with the commencement of employment of Aboriginal mental health workers in the inpatient unit. The AIMHI consultation reveals broad support for employment of more Aboriginal mental health workers in the Top End.
The purpose of this paper is to draw on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) perspectives, theoretical understandings, and available evidence to answer questions about what is required to effectively address Indigenous people’s mental health and social and emotional wellbeing. Social and emotional wellbeing is a multifaceted concept. Although the term is often used to describe issues of ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’, it has a broader scope in that Indigenous culture takes a holistic view of health. It recognises the importance of connection to land, culture, spirituality, ancestry, family and community, how these connections have been shaped across generations, and the processes by which they affect individual wellbeing. It is a whole-of-life view, and it includes the interdependent relationships between families, communities, land, sea and spirit and the cyclical concept of life–death–life (SHRG 2004). Importantly, these concepts and understandings of maintaini...
Issues in Mental Health Assessment with Indigenous Australians
2010
In this chapter we briefly discuss the various elements that comprise the concept of assessment, as well as the distinction between assessment and testing. We explore the issues related to the lack of fit between Western and Australian Indigenous perspectives on mental illness. We examine the history of assessment and testing with culturally diverse groups, and explore a range of emergent principles and guidelines for practice to improve and govern assessment practices with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We conclude that assessment and those practitioners conducting assessment must be repositioned (and reposition themselves) to play an important role in the development of procedures and practices in the provision of mental health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. ISBN: 978-1-74241-091-3
International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
This article presents findings from the multi-sited ethnography of mental health nursing practice as it relates to the care of Indigenous users of public mental health services in Australia. It provides an analysis of mental health nurses beliefs and ideas about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people encountered over the course of this research. The Indigenous service user was positioned as Other to the non-Indigenous mental health nurse, and to non-Indigenous service users. Cultural difference and the legacy of colonization, including its impact on the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, contributed to these beliefs of alterity. Despite emphasizing the differences with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in mental health services, nurses did not clearly relate this to Indigenous ways of understanding ill health. While cultural differences were recognized, what they meant for the nurses or their nursing practice was interpreted in different ways. In these circumstances, approaches towards care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people varied between nurses.