Working together : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice / edited by Nola Purdie, Pat Dudgeon and Roz Walker (2024)

Australian Psychologist, 2016

Recent aggregated statistics confirm our experience as Aboriginal health service providers and researchers that Aboriginal people in the Eyre Peninsula region of SA are living with many challenges to their health and wellbeing. Mental health disorders are prevalent and complex, and include substance misuse, grief and loss, and diagnosed mental illnesses, often complicated by other physical health problems, trouble with

This paper forms the foundation for the promotion of mental health with rural Mi'kmaq youth through a community based participatory research project. Western understandings of mental health and illness are compared and contrasted with Aboriginal understandings. Mainstream mental health services that accommodate cultural differences do not speak to the totality of Aboriginal understandings of mental health or to self-determination and self-reliance of Aboriginal peoples. The paper comprises three sections. Differences in the major understandings of mental health and illness are examined in the first section and common understandings associated with these concepts are addressed in the second section. Within the third section an analysis of three exemplar models of Aboriginal mental health and illness services is conducted. These models illustrate similarities and differences, and provide evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion that is inclusive of difference. The paper ...

International Journal for Equity in Health, 2015

Australasian Psychiatry, 2007

Objective: While Indigenous Australians are exposed to more risk factors and experience a greater burden and complexity of mental disorder, there is as yet limited capacity to assess this at individual, community or societal levels. This paper explores factors associated with and consequences of inadequate mental health assessment processes. Method and findings: The excess burden of Indigenous mental disorders is now demonstrated but is still clearly an underestimate. This motivated a project based in northern Australia to develop effective mental health assessment tools. The initial stages of this project brought together academics and practitioners with Indigenous workers and researchers from Australia and New Zealand. This provided significant and shared insights in relation to the collection and use of Indigenous mental health data. Conclusions: Critical themes to guide researchers, services and practitioners were defined and presented in this paper along with a range of individ...

This paper forms the foundation for the promotion of mental health with rural Mi'kmaq youth through a community based participatory research project. Western understandings of mental health and illness are compared and contrasted with Aboriginal understandings. Mainstream mental health services that accommodate cultural differences do not speak to the total-ity of Aboriginal understandings of mental health or to self-determination and self-reliance of Aboriginal peoples. The paper comprises three sections. Differences in the major understandings of mental health and illness are examined in the first section and common understandings associated with these concepts are addressed in the second section. Within the third section an analysis of three exemplar models of Aboriginal mental health and illness services is conducted. These models illustrate similarities and differences, and provide evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion that is inclu-sive of difference. The paper...

Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2018

The Medical journal of Australia, 2010

To explore emerging themes related to the mental health of Aboriginal children and adolescents ("young people") arising from focus groups conducted in Sydney, New South Wales. A qualitative study was conducted between April 2008 and September 2009 in three Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations in Sydney. A semi-structured approach was used in focus groups and small group interviews to elicit the views of 15 Aboriginal parents and 32 Aboriginal workers from a variety of health and social work backgrounds on important factors surrounding the mental health of Aboriginal young people. Major themes identified were the centrality of family and kinship relationships, the importance of identity, confounding factors in the mental health of Aboriginal young people, and issues related to service access and implementation. Clinicians working with Aboriginal young people should be mindful of the critical importance of family and identity issues and should assess possible...

International journal of mental health nursing, 2018

The failure of public mental services in Australia to provide care deemed culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has persisted despite several national reports and policies that have attempted to promote positive service change. Nurses represent the largest professional group practising within these services. This article reports on a multisited ethnography of mental health nursing practice as it relates to this group of mental health service users. It explores the beliefs and ideas that nurses identified about public mental health services and the services they provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. During the fieldwork, mental health nurses described the constricting effect of the biomedical paradigm of mental illness on their abilities to provide authentic holistic care focused on social and emotional well-being. Despite being the most numerous professional group in mental health services, the speciality of mental health nursing appear...

Australian Psychologist, 2017

Advances in Mental Health, 2009