Authors: Kimberley Wriedt, Stephanie Shavin & Laura Boscaglia
Year: 2023
Event: 2023 The MHS conference - Adelaide
Subject: Improving cultural responsiveness: Reflections from a short-term localised project with a youth mental health service
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract: The Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System found diverse communities experience many barriers to good mental health. Whilst many services are aware of this, historically they have not been designed with cultural responsiveness at their core. So what happens when a service wants to embed cultural responsiveness? How and where did they start, and what did it look like?’
This presentation describes a short-term pilot project between a state-wide transcultural mental health service and one site of a youth mental health service that sought to unpack these questions. The project focused on numerous areas including:
- Establishing foundational knowledge and practice in cultural responsiveness
- Revising policies and procedures at a local level
- Establishing a reflective practice culture
- Implementing activities to sustain a cultural responsive culture.
Presenters will describe their learnings from the project, including:
- How they sought to transform the culture of the site
- Relational factors enabling the process of working together, supporting collaboration between the two services
- Successes and challenges
- Pros and cons of short-term service development engagement
By sharing these learnings, we intend to demonstrate one approach to making rights real for young people accessing culturally responsive mental health care.
Learning Objective
-Services must consider the needs of their sites and community when seeking to embed cultural responsiveness
-This highlights how one youth mental health service embarked on reforming policies and practices of one site to better respond to the needs of their diverse community - ensuring equitable access and service response.
References
Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (2021). An Integrated Approach to Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Mental Health Service Provision in Victoria: A Position Paper. Victorian Transcultural Mental Health.
Kirmayer LJ Jarvis GE. (2019). Culturally Responsive Services as a Path to Equity in Mental Healthcare. Healthcare Papers. 18(2):11-23. doi: 10.12927/hcpap.2019.25925. PMID: 31596698.
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