Projects
Transcultural Mental Health Program
Current Projects
Cultures in the know - Enabling Multi-Faith Communities to Improve Mental Wellbeing
Faith-based care is the predominant form of care accessed by some people with a mental illness, particularly for people from non-English speaking backgrounds. This occurs when people go to their faith leader for advice rather than going to a GP or other health professional. The levels of knowledge and skills that faith leaders have to help their parishioners with mental health issues varies widely.
ADEC has received funding from the Manningham city council to launch a pilot project in Manningham, in partnership with the Manningham Interfaith Network that targets faith leaders and provides a program of shared learning. ADEC seeks to engage with faith leaders to explore beliefs and responses towards mental health, its relationship to religious practices, and provide training to these faith representatives: to enhance their knowledge and capacity to identify mental health issues; to gain knowledge of the mental health services available and ways of referring parishioners to the relevant services.
Burmese Mental Health
The Burmese community has been a growing community in Australia. 2006 census reported the population of Burmese at 13,693; however the refugee intake of Victoria in the year 2007/2008 recorded 41% of Burmese off the total refugee intake, a clear indication of the fact that this is a growing community. Majority of those arrivals are humanitarian settlers who have experienced a long refugee journey through different parts of Asia, before resettling in Australia.
ADEC hopes to undertake a focus group in June 2011 with members of the Chin community to gain an understanding of the communities’ perception of mental illness, awareness of mental illness and knowledge of mental health services.
Completed Projects
Somali Mental Health Project
ADEC's Transcultural Mental Health Program received funding to provide mental health education to the Somali community in the northern area of Melbourne. ADEC employed a female and a male bilingual worker from the Somali community as well as a coordinator for the project. The team studied the target group needs and conducted focus groups with the youth of the Somali community as well as the mature Somali men and women (gender divided). Both mature age groups requested mental health education, whereas the young Somalian community members were seeking to develop a brochure with general mental health information and service contacts.
The project was exciting and challenging at times but highly rewarding for everyone involved.
A final report in form of a Tool Kit for other services working with the Somali community is available from ADEC
For a copy of the Somali mental health youth brochure developed by Somali youth please click Resources
Stepping out of the Shadows – Stigma Reduction Project
Stigma creates barriers to seeking help, early detection and negatively affects upon recovery rates and prognosis. It also isolates individuals and their families and hinders them to fully participate in their communities and the broader society.
Stigma about mental illness exists in all cultures around the world. However, people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities who experience mental illness face a double disadvantage and therefore increased discrimination. They not only live with a mental illness, they also belong to an ethnic community.
Due to these reasons, the “Stepping out of the Shadows” project was developed by Multicultural Mental Health Australia (MMHA). It aims to reduce the negative impact of stigma with CALD communities by exploring how individuals and communities can deal with stigma and mental health issues in practical ways.
ADEC was appointed the coordinating body of Victoria to roll out the project. ADEC successfully carried out the project for a period of 1 year with funding received by the Victorian Department of Health. During the year 2009/2010 ADEC trained 9 Expert trainers, 64 Community trainers and successfully rolled out the package to 630 Participants from 13 communities’ across Victoria. The project was not refunded by the department.
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