For our Guest Blog this week we asked some of our Embrace Multicultural Mental Health consumers and carers just how they are feeling, and to describe some of the challenges they are seeing in their communities as a result of the many COVID-19 lockdowns. 

With more than 13 million Australians currently in lockdown, we’ve particularly focussed on people in NSW, Victoria and South Australia and taken a look at what some of the multicultural communities are doing to communicate key health messages and provide care and connection during this time.

Here’s just some of what our Embrace consumers and carers have told us this week:

I’m feeling very frustrated – it’s very difficult when there is no definite end date for the lockdown. I’m also angry with local authorities for acting slowly, for not having a disaster plan ready to act on immediately, and for not having information in different languages ready to distribute. Frustrated that this took so long to arrange.

South West Sydney has been stigmatised as blue collared, uninformed, migrants who are a problem. The Eastern Suburbs were not labelled like this. There is disparity in treatment of communities and the message is that we are not all in this together.

Asylum seekers in our community who had lost work have lost vital sources of income due to the lockdown and are now in need of food support provided by charities. They are not eligible for government COVID emergency financial support. They are a vulnerable group whose vulnerability has been compounded. 

Disadvantages are heightened and emphasised, people feel labelled. Also people who are less proficient in English are not able to provide assistance to their children with home schooling. They often rely on their children to translate information for them, so asking parents to supervise children while home schooling is unrealistic. 

In late June our friends at Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) launched a small grants program supported by the Settlement Council of Australia (SCOA), Migration Council Australia and the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN).  

The program delivers small grants to community groups to undertake and lead targeted communication activities on COVID-19 and the vaccinations at the grassroots level.  

According to FECCA Chief Executive Officer, Mohammad Al-Khafaji:

These grants will support local community leaders to ensure information and messages are delivered to their communities by trusted members and in the best form to be understood and acted upon. We thank multicultural communities who have done their part in tackling this pandemic, and we hope these small grants can support their important work. 

From a mental health perspective, recent announcements around additional funding for communications activities, particularly in NSW, will further add to the list of growing translated resources and information available to multicultural communities including:

• $4 million to Primary Health Networks (PHNs): $2 million to boost commissioned mental health services, including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and $2 million to provide targeted support and to work with CALD communities and leaders in impacted areas.
• $500,000 for a communications campaign to increase awareness of available mental health services and support, aimed at CALD communities.

To help get the messages out there is a lot happening, and there needs to be.

From grassroots organisations like the Western Sydney Migrant Resource Centre undertaking pulse surveys to answer some of the main reoccurring questions, they have been asked and then presenting those results back to representatives in the NSW Government who feedback to NSW Health and NSW Police, to Beyond Blue ramping up their suite of translated mental health literacy information such as Supporting your mental health during the pandemic fact sheets in 63 languages to videos on how to find support and talk about mental health in Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi and Vietnamese. 

Not to mention the great Multicultural youth experiences of the pandemic video series by ReachOut called Keeping up with my Culture.

Find out more about some of the many COVID-19 specific resources available and the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project.

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NEXT WEEK On Monday our CEO Leanne Beagley will be returning from leave. On Tuesday we’ll be holding a webinar with our lived experience networks on our Advice to Governments on the National Agreement for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. While on Wednesday we’ll be meeting with the Co-Chairs of the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum and attending the Disability Gateway Reference Group meeting. And on Thursday we will be attending the last Mental Health Information Strategy Standing Committee meeting.

 

Member Benefits, Jobs and Profiles

Communicate your news, job vacancies, or upcoming events to more than 5,000 people in the mental health ecosystem weekly. Mental Health Australia members are invited to send us news, announcements, job vacancies, events or other notices for inclusion in the Weekly CEO Update newsletter. To do so, simply fill out this form by COB each Wednesday for your notice to appear in the newsletter the following Friday. Job opportunities Deakin’s School of Medicine is looking for a Network Manager based in Geelong. Working as part of the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), the primary purpose of the Network Manager is to catalyse the establishment and running of MAGNET: the Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trial Network. Implementing MAGNET requires establishing the systems and processes that will underpin its vision of enabling the innovative, globally impactful, large-scale clinical trials that can change practice in mental health. Read more about the role here. Emerging Minds, the National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health is also seeking a Health Promotion Officer and a Project Lead - Digital Health to join their Adelaide-based Families & Education Team. The Health Promotion Officer will be responsible for the facilitation and coordination of a specific range of child mental health promotion activities, including the development and delivery of high quality and accessible health information and practice resources. The Project Lead will be responsible for leading the development and delivery of Emerging Minds digital health projects and activities to improve child mental health literacy in families. Member Profiles Mental Health First Aid Australia Mental Health First Aid International is a purpose-driven provider of skills-based mental health first aid education, guided by best practice and lived experience. Mental Health First Aid training provides course participants with the skills and knowledge to recognise and respond to someone experiencing a mental health problem or a mental health crisis until appropriate professional help is received or the crisis resolves. Their range of practical, evidence-based training is delivered by more than 2,000 accredited instructors in communities, workplaces and schools across Australia.  Breakthru breakthru is a national for purpose company that has worked with 1000’s of Australians over the past 25 years to access the services they need to live their best life. Through the provision of high-quality person-centric programs, we enable people to address mental health, employment, disability, homelessness and training needs. At breakthru we deliver a range of mental health services that provide support to people to assist with mental health concerns to maintain the best possible social and emotional outcomes, and meet personal recovery goals.

Embrace Multicultural Mental Health News Look after your mental health during COVID-19 If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can talk to a trained counsellor any time by calling the Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Line: 1800 512 348. For a free telephone interpreter, call 131 450. Posters available in 37 languages: Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Bangla, Burmese, Croatian, Dari, Dinka, English, Farsi, French, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish-Kurmanji, Lao, Macedonian, Mongolian,  Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Serbian, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese. Toby from Headpsace on Mental Health – Bilingual Videos International student, Toby from Headspace speaks about taking care of your mental health in these video resources, available in two languages: Cantonese and English.

Mental Health News

World-first monitoring system provides timely data on ambulance attendances for suicide The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released information on the number of ambulance attendances over time for suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, and intentional self-injury across New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. This release, and the establishment of the National Ambulance Surveillance System, form part of the AIHW’s National Suicide and Self-harm Monitoring System to support the national goal of working towards zero suicides. Read more Data key to suicide prevention Data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reinforces the value of data collection to help save lives. Despite a rise in demand for helplines and mental health services, the AIHW’s National Suicide and Self-Harm Monitoring System shows the numbers of suspected deaths by suicide in 2020 were similar to those in previous years. Suicide Prevention Australia, CEO, Nieves Murray said, “Monitoring the number, trends and rates of suicide in Australia is key to understanding who is at risk and for the planning and targeting of suicide prevention activities.” Read more Holistic web resource supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health workforce The HealthInfoNet’s existing social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) portal has been expanded to encompass information that is based on the holistic meaning of social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This new content is based on substantial evidence around models of SEWB which will provide a strengthened coverage of updated resources for both policymakers and health practitioners. New subtopics on the already comprehensive portal will include Staying strong; Country, culture and spirituality and Family, kinship and community. Read more $2m to deliver resilient kids program in North Queensland The federal Government is providing $2 million to the Northern Queensland and Western Queensland Primary Health Networks to commission new programs to help school-aged children better take care of their mental wellbeing and strengthen their resilience. The Resilient Kids program is funded from $60 million the Government allocated to support the areas hit hard by the 2019 North Queensland Monsoon Trough. Read more Suicide Prevention Grants Deliver Territory Success Stories Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the Northern Territory Government’s Suicide Prevention Grants have helped local organisations make a genuine difference to the lives of Territorians. One success story from last year was FORWAARD Aboriginal Corporation’s Lyrics for Life project, which was rolled out with the support of 30 Territorians. FORWAARD used their Suicide Prevention Grant to produce two songs touching on themes including how to reach out for help and overcome the stigma associated with mental health. Read more More support for youth mental health in Victoria The federal Government is providing $3 million to support young Australians in Victoria, ensuring they can access mental health support if and when they need it during this lockdown. The funding will be matched by the Victorian Government and delivered through headspace, helping meet the critical demand for youth mental health services across the state.  Read more Wellbeing campaign encourages HSC students to ask for help HSC students and their families will have 24-hour access to support from Australia’s leading mental health service for young people in the lead up to exams. In addition to the wellbeing programs being run at schools, the NSW government has extended a partnership with ReachOut on the Stay Healthy HSC Hub providing advice for HSC students for staying healthy while preparing for their exams.  Read more

Reminders

Butterfly Body Bright: Australia’s First Body Image Program for Primary Schools Primary schools nationwide will be able to access Butterfly Body Bright. In an Australian first, the evidence-informed whole school program will help children establish a strong foundation for the development of positive body image, with the aim to protect them from significant issues later in life. Schools can now register for Butterfly Body Bright via the program’s website. The program is free until at least 31st December 2021. 2022 Australian of the Year Nominations Nominations are open for the 2022 Australian of the Year until 31 July 2021. There are four categories in the Australian of the Year Awards - Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Local Hero. ALIVE National Centre Reminder EOIs for lived experience Co-Chairs The national centre is calling for expressions of interest (EOI) for Co-Chairs with experience of living with mental illness (consumer co-chairs) and carers of people living with mental illness (carer co-chairs). Applications close 26th July 2021 (5PM AEST). You can submit your EOI here.