Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities
ADEC Newsletter
Summer 1998
A Bi-annual Publication of
Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities (ADEC)
13 Munro Street,
Coburg 3058 Vic
Australia.
Telephone (03) 9383 5566
Fax (03) 9383 5185
E-mail: info@adec.org.au
IN THIS EDITION
Annual General Meeting
From the desk of the Executive Director
Individual Advocacy Program
New Faces in Social Support
Disability Discrimination & Cultural Diversity Information Forum
For HACC Program Coordinators
Launch of Mental Health Resources
Training Update
Service Specific Training
Mental Health Promotion for Non-English Speaking Background People with Psychiatric Disabilities: an exploratory study
Refugee Advocacy Program
ADEC Disability Information Service
Valuing Cultural Diversity
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ADEC conducted its annual general meeting during November. The annual report was presented and the new Board of Management was elected for the 1997/98 period.
The new Board of Management includes:
Mr George Bisas
Mr Lucio Nacarella
Mr Edward Scibberas
Ms Helen Patsikatheodorou
Ms Maree Ivey
Ms Leila Elguindy
Ms Fran Draycott
Ms Francis McKay
Ms Maria Cesarello, and
Mr Harvey Ritchie
Mr Robert Doyle, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health was a guest at our AGM and officially opened our new premises. We thank Mr Doyle for attending this function.
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Seasons greetings to all of our readers. ADEC is preparing for another exciting and busy year with many new activities planned.
Our new Torture / Trauma Advocacy Program has now commenced and the Coordinator for this project, Ms Rosy Kos, is busy establishing referral networks with refugee and relevant disability services. This program will seek to provide advocacy support to newly arrived refugees (within five years generally) who have sustained a disabling condition as a result of an experience of torture or trauma.
The Department of Human Services, Disability Branch has funded another new project. This project will allow ADEC to facilitate the development of ethnic Action and Equity Plans for the twenty two disability information services funded by the Department. This project will operate throughout 1998 and ADEC will work intensively with each funded Disability Information Service to provide training, advice and support.
ADEC has recently become a nationally accredited training provider by the Office of Training and Further Education. Our training activities are expanding rapidly with ADEC delivering calendar and service specific training from Melbourne to areas such as Ballarat, Mildura and Wangaratta.
Internally, all ADEC programs are working to individual work programs and marketing plans. ADEC expects to spend a great deal of time marketing our program and activities particularly in regions that we have not adequately focused on in the past.
Our Individual Advocacy Program has established new benchmarks and we will be seeking to target new consumers for this program in the coming month.
If you have any queries about these programs, please ring me on 9383 5566.
Regards,
Gabriel Maligeorges
(Executive Director)
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ADEC's Individual Advocacy Program aims to ensure that people from non English speaking background with a disability and/or their carers are able to obtain services which meet their needs.
ADEC's Individual Advocates:
- Can support and empower people with disabilities and carers to obtain the services which they require.
- Can provide information about services and refer people to services which may assist them.
- Can protect peoples rights to access services and facilitate involvement in decision making processes.
- Can support people to address complaints to the relevant government departments and other services.
ADEC's Individual Advocacy Program can assist people who have a;
- Physical disability;
- Intellectual disability;
- Psychiatric disability;
- Behavioural disability (e.g. Autism)
- Hearing or vision impairment;
- Developmental delay; or
- Multiple disabilities; and/or their carers.
ADEC's Individual Advocates are:
Mr Kemal Cevikoglu and Ms Silvia Borrelli
You can contact ADEC's Individual Advocates by phoning (03) 9383 5566 or meeting them at ADEC House, 13 Munro Street, Coburg.
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The social support program has had some staff changes since the last newsletter.
I would like to commence by informing readers that Julia Zanin has resigned from her position as facilitator for the Italian Carers Support group. Julia was a dedicated staff member and we wish her the best of luck in her future endeavours.
The program has been fortunate enough to have two new skilled and committed staff members to join the team.
Laurice Demian joined the social support program in August 1997 and is the facilitator for the Arabic speaking carers support group.
From August to October 1997, Laurice undertook the difficult task of establishing the long awaited Arabic group and in October the group had its first meeting.
Laurice's extensive and diverse experience in working with groups, both in Australia and Egypt, combined with her commitment will enhance ADEC services to the Arabic community.
The other staff member which ADEC would like to welcome is Valdina (Val) La Terra. Val has replaced Julia as the facilitator for the Italian carers support group. Val commenced in October and has since been actively promoting the group. Val has had an array of experience in working with carers from diverse settings and age ranges. Val's personal experiences combined with her professionalism will prove to be an asset to ADEC and our Italian consumers.
We look forward to providing a quality support service during 1998 and we feel this will be achieved through the current expansion of the program and the commitment and skills of all the staff.
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The Disability Discrimination Law Advocacy Service, the Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria, and ADEC recently organised a forum on 12 November, 1997 at the YWCA Melbourne.
The aim of this forum was to share information about access issues for people with a disability who are from a non English speaking background and for participants to come away with strategies that agencies can adopt to address issues of discrimination.
A panel of speakers presented an overview of the Disability Discrimination Act, the Racial Discrimination Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. The forum also included a presentation about international human rights from Professor Gillian Triggs, Melbourne University Law Faculty, and Ms Sarah Joseph, Monash University Law Faculty.
The forum was attended by approximately 45 participants representing a range of disability services, ethnic services, community legal services, Government departments and non-government organisations. The following points were highlighted
- Disability discrimination is experienced by people with a disability and their carers regardless of their language / cultural background.
- Disability discrimination occurs in subtle and overt ways at an individual and systemic level.
- Disability discrimination is compounded for people who are from a non English speaking background because of linguistic and cultural factors.
- To be effective, access and equity strategies within the legal and the community service sector must target issues affecting people of non English speaking people at an individual and systemic level.
- People with disabilities and their carers have a low level of awareness about their rights and the legislative framework that can protect their rights.
- Service providers, including the ethnic service sector, need to further develop their understanding about how to best address disability discrimination issues that affect people with disabilities who are from a non English speaking background.
- The commitment by service planners and providers to achieve access and equity strategies must be reinforced by the allocation of adequate resources.
A number of workshops were organised to explore how to facilitate service access by people with a disability who are of non English speaking background and the powers of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Kris Pavlidis
Cultural Planning Resource Kit
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The Home and Community Care (HACC) section of the Department requested that cultural planning resource kits be developed and distributed to all Victorian Department of Human Services HACC Coordinators.
The purpose of the kit is to provide each Coordinator with relevant resources in order to assist with the planning of culturally relevant HACC services state wide.
The kits were collated by ADEC and include the following resources:
- HACC Cross Cultural Training Manual
- Cultural Planning Tool
- CIARR Resource Guide
- CCT Access and Equity Kit
- A Starting Point: A Resource Package for Aged Care Assessment Teams
- Cultural Assessment Guide for Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACAT)
- Multicultural Aged Care Services Directory
- Working with Interpreters: A Guide for Government Departments
- Speaking of Diversity: Delivering Translating and Interpreting Services to People of Non English Speaking Background
Regional HACC Program Coordinators will have these resources available for service providers to cite. Alternatively, most of these resources are also available in ADEC's library.
Please telephone if you would like to make an appointment to view any of the above material.
Josie Prioletti
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On October 28 this year, David Green the Public Advocate launched three resources designed to assist those affected by mental health problems. The launch was well attended by workers from the clinical and disability support sectors as well as ethnic communities with around 60 people attending. These resources, produced by ADEC, are as follows:
- Information on Mental Health Problems
Audio tapes providing information on mental health problems, the various forms of treatment available and including a brief overview of the rights of people under the Mental Health Act. These have been designed for consumer and carer information, particularly where written information is unaccessible. The audio tapes are available in Arabic, Cambodian, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Polish, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
They can be purchased from ADEC for $5 per tape or the set of 12 for $60. Consumers can obtain a tape directly from ADEC at no charge.
- Directory of Mental Health Information in Community Languages
This directory is a listing of information on mental health problems which is available in languages other than English. It was developed to assist staff working in the mental health sector to identify information in particular languages. The directory includes details of where the information can be obtained from and if there is a cost associated with it. ADEC will update the information in the directory every six months and will send the amendments to service providers who have the directory.
This directory was developed as an initiative of the Cross Regional Multicultural Education Working Group and compiled with the assistance of the Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network.
The Directory can be purchased from ADEC at $15 per copy or it can be downloaded from the ATMHN internet home page.
- What is Mental Illness Pamphlet
This pamphlet outlines the most common mental disorders and suggests treatment options. It also has information on service users' rights and of services which can be linked in with.
The pamphlet has been updated and is available in 17 languages including Arabic, Cambodian, Chinese, Croatian, English, Filipino, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Maltese, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
These three information products can be ordered by telephoning ADEC on 9383 5566 or by faxing an order on 9383 5185.
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The training unit has been busy with both the provision of training on ADEC's training calendar and with requests for service specific training.
CALENDAR EVENTS
A. Cross Cultural Communication
A course which provides training participants with the skills to appropriately and confidently communicate with people from non English speaking backgrounds. The course highlights the issues and sensitivities involved when working with people from other cultures as well as an overview of cultural diversity. The course includes the following:
- Working with interpreters (on and off site).
- Preparation of material for translation.
- Encouraging accessibility.
This course is an excellent induction for service providers as well as being a "refresher" course for those who need to revitalise their skills in this area.
Code Date
A9801 Wednesday, 15 Feb. 1998
A9802 Wednesday 22 Apr. 1998
A9803 Wednesday, 24 Jun. 1998
A9804 Wednesday 26 Aug. 1998
All courses will be held in the training room at ADEC House and will commence at 9.30 am.
B. Planning for Culturally Relevant Services
The purpose of this course is to assist training participants in the planning of culturally appropriate and accessible services. Service barriers will be identified and ideas for positive changes will be generated.
The course is challenging and will give participants "food for thought" for improved, equitable program planning.
The course is ideal for Managers, Coordinators, supervisors and board members. Course dates for 1998 are as follows:
Code Date
B9801 Wednesday, 18 Mar. 1998
B9802 Wednesday, 20 May. 1998
B9803 Wednesday, 23 Sep. 1998
All courses will be held at ADEC
House -13 Munro Street, Coburg
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The Training Unit was extremely busy in 1997 developing and implementing service specific training for the following agencies:
Multiple Sclerosis Society;
City of Knox;
Do Care;
Brotherhood of St.Laurence;
Moreland Adult Learning Centre;
Nunawading ATSS.
There have been many more requests from a range of diverse agencies and dates for cross cultural communication training have been booked for the following organisations.
Mildura Base Hospital;
Wangaratta Aged Services;
Equal Opportunity Commission;
Ballarat Psychiatric Services.
HACC TRAINING
ADEC's training unit has been successful in its training tenders for both the Northern and Western Region. Training provided will included:
- Communication and accessibility;
- Planning for culturally relevant services (implementing the Cultural Planning
Tool);
- Advocacy;
- Managing complaints.
Contact has been made in both the Southern and Eastern Regions to explore further training options.
ACCREDITATION
The training unit is pleased to announce the successful national accreditation of both the training unit and the training module "Planning for Culturally Relevant Services".
The accreditation was approved by OTFE (Office of Further Training and Education) December 1997.
Josie Prioletti
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This paper was presented at the 7th Annual THEMES - Mental Health Services Conference, 19th - 22nd September, 1997 in Sydney.
CONTEXT OF MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION FOR NESB PEOPLE WITH PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES
The importance of mental health promotion in order to prevent mental illness is widely recognised. The knowledge bases within the mental health promotion and transcultural mental health areas are both developing. However, to date there has been little intermersing of these two knowledge bases. On a national level, several mental health promotion initiatives exist, namely:
1. Policies: The National Mental Health Policy that lead to the:
National Mental Health Strategy media campaign;
1997 Review of Infrastructure for Promoting Mental Health in Australia;
1996 National Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Workshop.
The current Second National Mental Health Plan has prevention as one of its three key themes (early intervention, mental health promotion, prevention and community education). The National Standards for Mental Health Services address transcultural mental health promotion via Standard 6 - Prevention and Mental Health Promotion and Standard 7 - Cultural Awareness.
To date the only policy setting document on a national level that specifically addresses transcultural mental health promotion is the 1993 Mental Health for Multicultural Australia: a National Strategy.
The strategy identified NESB community participation, education and mental health promotion.
2. Research activities: To date, the Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network (ATMHN) appears to be the only national body funding projects related to mental health promotion. .e.g.. in 1996 the ATMHN funded a project to 'Investigate stigma and mental illness amongst NESB communities and to develop approaches to reduce it'.
3. Service/Program Activities: At state level, mental heath promotion activities exist, such as: resource development; community education campaigns; and professional education and training. Such activities are being conducted by the NSW Transcultural Mental Health Network, the North Eastern Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Victoria and Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities in Victoria.
Despite the existence of some knowledge, policy initiatives, research and service /program activities relevant to mental health promotion, to date there has been little coordinated and comprehensive exploration of the concept of mental health promotion in the transcultural mental health area. Given that, NESB people with psychiatric disabilities have special needs, research that informs the development of culturally appropriate and responsive mental health promotion policies, strategic approaches and programs for NESB people with psychiatric disabilities appears essential.
STUDY AIMS
The study aimed:
- To identify of the various opinions, attitudes and beliefs held about mental health promotion in the transcultural mental health area;
- To identify the key elements that underpin mental health promotion programs for NESB people with psychiatric disabilities; and
- To identify factors that promote or constrain the delivery of culturally appropriate mental health promotion programs for NESB people with psychiatric disabilities.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To obtain perspective's on mental health promotion key informants were recruited from the Transcultural Mental Health and Community-based Ethnic and Psychiatric Service areas. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, information was collected via individual discussion sheets, focus group discussions and semi structured interviews.
PARTICIPANT PROFILE
Nineteen key informants participated in the study. The organisations involved in the study included:
- One national transcultural mental health center - Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network (ATMHN);
- Two state-based transcultural mental health centers - Victorian Transcultural Psychiatric Unit (VTPU); and the NSW Transcultural Mental Health Centre (NSW TMHC);
- Two Community based services Ethnic Disability Peak Bodies, Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities (ADEC); and North Eastern Alliance for the Mental Ill (NEAMI); and
- One Ethnic Mental Health Consultant from the Western Region of Victoria.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Preliminary results are available on Contextual Categories or the spectrum of beliefs, opinions and experiences that exist about mental health promotion, and on Strategic Categories or strategic actions that key informants felt needed to be taken if we are to develop culturally appropriate mental health promotion programs for NESB people with psychiatric disabilities.
CONTEXTUAL CATEGORIES
Key informants were asked "to describe what they understood to be the meanings of "mental health", "preventing mental illness", "health promotion" and "mental health promotion". Overall, participants used the terms interchangeably and referred to them in similar ways. There also appeared to be no organisational variation in the ways the terms were used and understood. Participants predominantly mentioned three types of activities as reflecting the above terms, including:
- activities that lead to enhanced life capacity and well-being;
- activities that minimised contributory factors to mental illness; and
- information provision strategies to increase awareness about mental illness or to de-stigmatise mental illness.
The above spectrum of activities provides us with insight into the range of beliefs, opinions and experiences, focus of attention and subsequent likely allocation of resources for mental health promotion programs.
STRATEGIC CATEGORIES
Key informants were asked to list the factors that they perceived as promoting or constraining the development of culturally appropriate mental health promotion program for NESB people.
Key informants mentioned promoting or constraining factors related to consumers, service provision and to the community.
Consumer related factors can be clustered into two dominant categories:
- Diversity of the NESB population (language and literacy skills);
- Spectrum of mental health conditions (types and severity).
Service provision related factors can be clustered into four dominant categories:
- Workforce (staff knowledge, skills and values about health promotion and
mental health promotion principles and practices);
- Resources (availability of funds);
- Access and utilisation of services; and
- Service models and practices (crisis intervention vs community development
approaches).
Community related factors can be clustered into two dominant categories:
- Awareness; and
- Acceptance of mental health and health promotion as valuable tools for increasing capacity.
IMPLICATIONS OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS
It appears that there are a range of factors that need to be initially recognised then addressed if we are to have a commitment to culturally appropriate mental health promotion programs. Each of the factors have implications for policy making, resource allocation and service development, at a national level, state level, organisational level and community level. To date, these factors have not been discussed in a comprehensive, systematic nor coordinated manner.
A more detailed analysis of key informant responses will be available at a later date.
Lucio Naccarella, Research Fellow,
Centre for Health Program Evaluation
C/- PO Box 477, West Heidelberg,
Victoria, 3081 Ph: (03) 94964428
Lucio is the ADEC Treasurer and has been on the ADEC Board for approximately five years.
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As stated in the winter edition of ADEC News, ADEC has received funding from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to provide individual advocacy to support people who have a disabling condition resulting from an experience of torture or trauma prior to arrival in Australia.
The program commenced mid December when I, Rosy Kos, commenced my appointment as the advocate. The focus of the program, which is state wide, is to provide assistance to people who have resided in Australia for up to five years. However, there is flexibility to extend this brief should a need be identified.
The role of the advocate not only includes that of direct advocacy for consumers, but also the provision of service information, linkages and referrals for carers or other consumer representatives. As an example, a person (who had experienced war atrocities) was referred to me by a Social Worker, who was concerned that the person's health was deteriorating rapidly. It was identified that there was urgent need for a correct diagnosis of the person's mental health, the need for some form of social/community activities, preferably work, and the possible need for counselling.
I subsequently linked the person in with a government agency for assessment, advising and resourcing staff on (culturally) appropriate communications, and investigated and provided information to the person and their family on ethnic specific counsellors for future reference. My role win include following up with the government agency to ensure an appropriate course of action that eventuates in employment/other day time activity is agreed to and acted upon.
I am also keen to link in with interested individuals / agencies to identify advocacy, service access and other issues arising from a systemic level. To assist in this, I will be forming a Reference Group, with the aim of addressing identified issues.
If you are interested in sitting on the Reference Group or would like to remain informed of its' activities, I am happy to hear from you. For further information about this program or if you wish to make a referral, please contact ADEC on 03 9383 5566.
Rosy Kos - Advocate
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Access & Equity Strategy Development
ADEC has recently received funding by the Department of Human Services - Disability Branch in order to work with twenty-two funded Disability Information Services in the development of non English speaking information strategy plans.
In order to provide information to people with a disability who are of non English speaking background, it is ADEC's view that Disability Information Services need to:
- Plan for the future needs of non English speaking communities in order to ensure that information provision is relevant.
- Understands the issues pertaining to the non English speaking communities.
- Receive training and guidance in the area of information provision to non English speaking communities.
Specific objectives of this project will be to:
- Ensure that services which provide information regarding disability services and issues have the capacity to address the issues/concerns of people from a non English speaking background.
- Ensure that services with the role of information provision are aware of the various issues and needs of non English speaking communities, and have the strategies to address these issues.
- Assist in the program planning process for information providers so that the changing needs of people from non English speaking background and their carers are included and addressed in a systematic way over the course of one year.
For more information about this program, please phone Josie Prioletti on 03 9383 5566.
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Want to know more about the What? How? Why? of culture? " The Cultural Cameos".
This publication is for all those working with children and families in Multicultural Australia.
Eighteen(18) handbooks each describing a specific culture have been packed into one kit.
Cost $100, Available from Multicultural Child Care Unit, 3 Ninth St, Bowden SA 5007
E-mail: nccusa@dove.net.au
Phone: 03 8346 1762, Fax: 03 8346 6941
ORDER FORM (Please note: A discount of $20.00 is available to all Children's Services)
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