Dear friends, partners and stakeholders, 

Today, we celebrate World Mental Health Day. This year, Mental Health Australia is shining a light on connection with the theme ‘Meaningful Connections Matter’. We recognise that many types of connection, including those with loved ones, community, colleagues, support services, country, or even ourselves, play a pivotal role in our mental wellbeing.  

Many people from multicultural backgrounds encounter significant barriers when seeking mental health support. These barriers can include stigma around talking about mental health within their cultures, struggle to find professional supports who understand their cultural context, or language barriers that make it harder to access services. For refugees and migrants, these obstacles are further compounded by the challenges of settling in a new country, navigating unfamiliar and complex health systems, and experiences of social isolation and discrimination. 

Community leaders and members of multicultural communities often share insights into the power of connection and its undeniable role in combating these negative experiences to promote space for recovery and mental wellness both collectively and individually. Supporting and fostering these connections is key to continuing to improve outcomes in mental health and suicide prevention for multicultural communities.  

As part of World Mental Health Day, we have been privileged to hear from some of our valued members of the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health (Embrace) Lived Experience Group. Later in this newsletter you can read the personal mental health and wellbeing journeys they have shared, and how connection has played a positive role in their lives.   

Though these are individual stories, they provide a window into the broader challenges people and communities from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds face and how these challenges can impact overall mental health and wellbeing.  

We invite you to join us in celebrating World Mental Health Day by visiting the website here.  

The Embrace Project team 

Get in touch: multicultural@mhaustralia.org 

Embrace Project Updates

• Meaningful Connections Matter – stories from our Lived Experience Group 
• Transition of the Framework to a Learning Management System    
• CALD Community Engagement Project Update - New resources to share  

Partner and Sector Announcements

• Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA)
• National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA)
• Launch of Tamil Safe Space in NSW
• Opportunities for community participation

This World Mental Health Day, we are excited to spotlight stories shared by some of our members of the Embrace Lived Experience Group. 

We hope these stories encourage you to reflect on the role meaningful connections play in the mental wellbeing of people from multicultural backgrounds. 

Check out their stories below: 

• Lew Ching's Story - World Mental Health Day 

• Sachi's Story - World Mental Health Day 

• Ankith's Story - World Mental Health Day 

• Joy's Story - World Mental Health Day 

Embrace is thrilled to announce that the Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia (Framework) transitioned to a new Learning Management System (LMS) on 24 September 2024. This move marks an important milestone in our commitment to enhancing the efficiency, accessibility, and effectiveness of the Framework for all users.   

The new platform provides a modern user-friendly interface that allows for improved navigation across the Framework modules, a central library to access resources to support your journey to improved cultural responsiveness and the ability to track and save multiple assessments over time.  

The Framework is a free, nationally available resource that assists organisations and individuals to assess and enhance their cultural responsiveness to improve mental health and suicide prevention outcomes for multicultural communities in Australia.  

Explore the Framework and new LMS 

here: https://framework.embracementalhealth.org.au/  

If you would like to know more about the Framework or need help accessing the LMS please contact Embrace at multicultural@mhaustralia.org.  

The CALD Community Engagement Project (CCEP) continues to be a source of learning and connection for communities across Australia. This is a grassroots initiative in which the Embrace team partners with community organisations to develop community-led and designed resources that build awareness, decrease stigma and support sustainable conversations on mental health and suicide prevention within communities and share insights on best practice approaches supporting others in similar work.  

We now have three new community-led projects that have commenced:   

• African Congolese community in partnership with The Albury-Wodonga Ethnic Communities Council;  

• Ethiopian/Eritrean, Bhutanese and Chin communities in partnership with Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania; and   

• Extending the current work of the Ezidi community in Armidale and the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors to include resources speaking to suicide prevention.  

We’re excited to see how these initiatives evolve over the next year.  

The Inclusive Arts Project, led by the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA), aims to increase access for culturally and racially marginalised people with disability to arts programs across the ACT, NSW, WA, Queensland and Victoria. 

The Advisory Group for the Inclusive Arts Project will be established to provide direction, advice and oversight for the delivery of the project. Advisory Group members will be compensated for their time.  

NEDA welcomes EOIs from artists, art enthusiasts, arts administrators, community arts organisers and cultural workers, particularly those from culturally and racially marginalised and/or have lived experience of disability, as well as their carers or family members.  

To submit an EOI form by 10 November 2024, please click here. 

Please reach out to Brahmmi Kumarasamy, Senior Projects Officer at NEDA, at projects@neda.org.au if you have any questions. 

The community developed and led, Tamil Safe Space in Western Sydney, officially opened on 3 August 2024 at the Wentworthville Community Centre in Cumberland Council. The co-design of this Safe Space was supported by Anglicare NSW and Roses in the Ocean. This Safe Space was established in response to the Tamil community’s experience of suicides and mental health challenges, and the ongoing intergenerational trauma following prolonged civil conflict in their country. 

The Tamil Safe Space provides a warm, welcoming, and trauma-informed environment for those facing emotional distress or suicidal crisis. It offers non-clinical, compassionate, and empathetic support to all guests, with the goal of normalising seeking assistance for improved mental health and breaking down mental health stigma within ethnic communities.  

The support offered is culturally appropriate with Tamil-speaking peer support workers available who have a lived experience of suicide. Notably, this Safe Space is run by volunteers who have received comprehensive training from Roses in the Ocean to support individuals in distress. 

To learn more about this initiative, visit the Tamil Safe Space website: https://tamilsafespace.org.au/ 

The draft Advice on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy has been released for public consultation by the National Suicide Prevention Office. This public consultation provides an opportunity to ensure that the suicide prevention needs of multicultural Australia are voiced at a national level. We encourage you to ‘have your say’.  

To learn more about the draft Strategy and contribute to the public consultation, visit here.

Please note the public consultation period will close on midnight Sunday, 27 October 2024. 

R U OK? is currently piloting the ‘Supporting your community workshops in Hindi’ and is seeking Expressions of Interest from Hindi-speaking communities or community organisations who wish to host a FREE workshop for their community aimed at building people’s capacity to have R U OK? conversations. 

If you're interested in hosting a workshop or want to learn more about this opportunity, visit the R U OK? website to submit your Expression of Interest here.

The Department of Health and Aged Care has engaged Nous Group to undertake an evaluation of translation and interpreter services (TIS). The evaluation will seek to understand barriers to accessing mental health services for people with limited English proficiency and the impact of the Australian Government’s investment and identify opportunities for improvement.  

As part of the evaluation, Nous is holding several focus groups with consumers and carers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Nous would love to hear from people who:  

• are from a culturally and linguistically diverse background  

• have used mental health services in Australia or care for someone who does  

• are available to participate in a one-hour online discussion during October 2024.  

The focus groups, facilitated by two representatives from Nous, will last approximately one hour. If this opportunity is right for you, please complete the expression of interest (EOI) form via this link.  

 For more information you can contact the Nous evaluation team by emailing tis-cald-evaluation@nousgroup.com or calling Ben Whitton on 03 8602 6285. 

The 2025 National Suicide Prevention Conference, hosted by Suicide Prevention Australia, is being held on 20-22 May at the Perth Convention Centre. Bursary applications are now open. 

For more details and to apply for a bursary, visit the NSPC 2025 website. 

Please note that this opportunity closes on 24 October 2024. 

If you would like further information about the Embrace Project or to discuss how we could support you, please contact us via email on multicultural@mhaustralia.org or call 02 6285 3100.