Embrace Multicultural Mental Health News December 2020

Dear friends and stakeholders,

As the year comes to end, we’d like to thank you for your support throughout 2020. Like all organisatons, we have had to rethink the way we engage with you, our stakeholders. The community video forums we’ve held in each state, the webinars on the Framework modules and our meetings via Zoom have all contributed to making sure our work moves forward. Our aim continues to be to provide a national focus on mental health and suicide prevention for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

Our CALD Consumer and Carer Group met by videconference at the end of November and provided feedback on the community video forums. These forums provide us with a unique opportunity to hear directly from multicultural leaders about mental health issues in their communities and to link them with multilingual resources the Embrace Project offers. We hope that 2021 will bring opportunities to travel and meet with people face-to-face.

The Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia (the Framework) continues to be a useful resoource for mental helath service providers. We now have over 1000 registered users. Our team has been busy contacting users to offer support and guidance in implementing the Framework within mental health services.

We are pleased to let you know that our awareness campaign with SBS is nearing completion. The campaign features members of our CALD Mental Health Consumer and Carer Group reflect on their own mental health journeys, struggles and joys. It ran in 20 languages and was both shown online and broadcast on ABC radio in October. We hope this initiative will break down stigma surrounding mental health and prompt people to visit our website.

See below for more Embrace Project highlights.

Wishing you a very happy end of year festive season.

Warm regards,

The Embrace Project team

Embrace Multicultural Mental Health
P (02) 6285 3100
E multicultural@mhaustralia.org
W www.embracementalhealth.org.au

Project Highlights

NEW opportunity: Community Champions Roles

As culturally and linguistically diverse communities often experience unique health care inequities, it is important that programs are targeted and culturally appropriate.

By engaging and working in close partnership with communities and other key services, we are able to implement a range of health promotion strategies that respect cultural values while building community capacity and resilience while reducing the impact of mental ill health.

This approach is also based on the principle that understanding the impact of culture and language on health is central to improving health literacy and community access to health services.

The Embrace Project is seeking to employ bicultural workers from Arabic, Farsi, Dari and Mandarin-speaking communities to work on a sessional basis to focus on mental health issues and strategies directly with these communities.

This initiative aims to increase community awareness and understanding of mental health and illness, as well as increase access to mental health support and services.

If you are interested in applying for this opportunity, please email us at: multicultural@mhaustralia.org.au

Community Video Forums

The Embrace Project has now completed free video forums for community organisations and leaders in each state and territory. They provide resources and information on addressing mental health in your community.

These Community Video Forums will continue in 2021 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Stay tuned for more details.

Click here for more information and to register

Translated Resources and Webinars

Translated resources for community members

The first batch of translated mental health resources for community leaders and members are now available on our website.

The Embrace Project developed these resources with guidance from an advisory group made up of members of our CALD Mental Health Consumer and Carer Group.

The resources are available in the following languages:

Arabic, Assyrian, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, Simplified Chinese, Dari, Dinka, Farsi/Persian, Greek, Hazaragi, Italian, Karen, Nepali, Punjabi, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil and Vietnamese

Stay tuned for more translated resources coming soon!

Find the resources here

Webinars

The Embrace Project has conducted four webinars on the Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia (the Framework), providing in-depth looks into:

Service Module 1: Planning Strategically to Meet Multicultural Needs
Service Module 2: Developing Safe, Quality & Culturally Responsive Services
Service Module 3: Working Together to Promote Mental Health in Multicultural Communities
Service Module 4: Building a Culturally Responsive Mental Health Workforce

Watch previous webinars here

Connect with us on social media

The Embrace Project is now on social media and we would love to connect with you. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube - or search for us @EmbraceMultiMH.

02 6285 3100

9-11 Napier Close, Deakin ACT 2600

multicultural@mhaustralia.org

www.embracementalhealth.org.au