Author: vtmh

Over the past 12 months, VTMH has continued to deliver training across the state, reaching participants in both metropolitan Melbourne and rural and regional areas. This year has seen significant achievements in supporting Victoria’s mental health workforce.

One of this year’s standout achievements was the introduction of a new workshop, Community Engagement with Purpose – Approaches to Consider in Mental Health Settings. This workshop was developed as part of the Community Engagement with Purpose Resource Project, which was officially launched in October 2023. It brings together the insights and knowledge gained through this co-design project and features a range of resources, including videos, podcasts and printed materials.

In 2024, 50 participants completed this particular workshop, and we look forward to welcoming more participants in 2025. Feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive:

• “Walking away with a beautifully expanded understanding of cultural engagement using caring holistic concepts and practices.”
• “The grounding of the content in community and community-generated core concepts was excellent.”

This year, we have had the privilege of supporting practitioners from a wide range of roles within the mental health sector. Workshops were delivered both in-person and online, covering a variety of important topics:

• Foundations of Culturally Responsive Practice for Mental Health Settings
• Approaching Work with Interpreters in Mental Health Settings
• Recovery and Diversity – Approaches to Cultural Assessment and Supporting Personal Recovery
• Community Engagement with Purpose – Approaches to Consider in Mental Health Settings (new for 2024).

We were pleased to continue our partnership with the Entry Level Allied Health Graduate Programme in collaboration with the Centre for Mental Health Learning for the second consecutive year. Additionally, organisations participating in our Partners in Diversity Programme benefitted from tailored workshops delivered as part of their involvement.

We are excited to continue offering workshops that empower and equip Victoria’s mental health workforce in 2025. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing you in the year ahead.

The VTMH team undertook a two day training workshop in August 2024, with Group Works Center. The workshop was focused on group facilitation skills. This training was to strengthen and build on facilitation skills and practice for VTMH staff.

As a statewide training organisation VTMH has a remit to bring professionals together for group learning and sharing knowledge and practice. Hence, it is critically important for VTMH staff to continue developing their group facilitation skills and collaborative learning practices.

The two-day training helped us examine our approach to group learning under ‘Values’, ‘Practical Principles’, ‘Self Awareness’, ‘Workplace Micro Skills’ and ‘Collaborative Processes’.

We learned both by understanding the theory and by practising skills via role play with each other. We gained valuable understanding on the concept of ‘Community of Selves’ that facilitators bring to sessions that they co facilitate and/or lead.

Following the two-day training, we plan to review and revisit our learnings in 2025. Some of the next steps include: creating co-facilitation conversations within the teams (for example, ‘what does safety in co-facilitation look like’); discussing how ‘power’ is shared by facilitators; what micro-skills are being used? Which of the community of Selves is being employed?    

Group Facilitation calls on personal and professional resources and skills. VTMH is committed to strengthening their staff emotional resilience, reflective awareness and practical skills in this area.

VTMH continues to test and adapt interventions based on the rural and regional mental health services stakeholder feedback, helping us address the challenges facing mental health services in rural and regional Victoria.

In 2024, we held three Foundations of Cultural Responsiveness (FOCR) workshops at Goulburn Valley Mental Health Service, Bendigo Health and Ballarat Mental Health Service. The objective was to gauge interest in collaboration between rural and regional mental health services and VTMH. The three workshops were very well received.

Next year will see the commencement of the cultural responsiveness phase of the initiative. We also expect to see an increase in participation.

In the first half of the year, we will initially run two Foundations of Cultural Responsiveness workshops: one for Goulburn/Murray Wellways, a non-government community mental health organisation, and one for the government-funded Mildura Base Hospital Mental Health Service (Loddon Mallee). This phase will assess the effectiveness of face-to-face workshops in rural and regional services.

Analysing metrics such as attendance rates, participant feedback and resource usage will help VTMH gauge the success of these pilot interventions. The use of real-time adjustments will support continuous improvement aligned with the VTMH Rural & Regional Approach Initiative’s objectives.

Feedback on the cultural relevance and accessibility of both in-person and online training will provide invaluable insights into VTMH’s long-term decisions on how to support the rural and regional mental health services, which is our ultimate goal.

This year at VTMH has been an incredibly meaningful chapter in my journey as a registrar—a role I’ve always dreamed of doing. From the moment I joined, I felt welcomed by a team whose kindness, support and inclusivity made me feel valued not just professionally but personally.

This experience has also been personal for me, as someone whose life is shaped by intersecting identities. Working in a space where culture and mental health meet has felt meaningful and affirming, resonating with my own values and experiences. 

I know I’ll deeply miss this role and the incredible people I’ve worked alongside. This year has been one of immense growth, connection, and purpose. I am so grateful for the opportunities, the people I’ve worked with, and the lessons I’ll carry with me long into the future.

Fostering Cultural Sensitivity in Psychiatric Practice

We are excited to announce the ongoing success of the VTMH Monthly Registrar Group, an initiative dedicated to enhancing cultural responsiveness among psychiatry registrars across Victoria.

This group meets for 1 hour, running from 2:30-3:30pm on the last Wednesday of each month. Each session invites psychiatry registrars to bring forth clinical cases that present cultural components or nuances. These cases form the basis of rich, in-depth discussions aimed at exploring the cultural dynamics that influence mental health care. By examining these real-world scenarios, participants gain valuable insights into the complexities of providing culturally sensitive psychiatric services.

Upcoming Sessions

Our next meeting is scheduled for the end of this month. We invite all psychiatry registrars in Victoria to join us and contribute to this enriching dialogue. Whether you have a case to present or wish to learn from others, your participation is invaluable.

For more information about the group or to express your interest in joining, please contact Dr. Justin Kuay (VTMH Consultant Psychiatrist) justin.kuay@svha.org.au or Dr. Sangita Raj (VTMH Psychiatry Registrar) sangita.raj@svha.org.au.

We look forward to seeing you at our next session!

On Tuesday, 3 July 2024, VTMH hosted a ‘Meet & Greet’ event with Kenya Community Victoria (KCV). This was a wonderful opportunity for VTMH staff and KCV organisational leaders, mental health sub-committee members/volunteers and community members to meet and to formalise our relationship through an official signing of the KCV & VTMH Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). 

The event was an inspiring and highly memorable experience for everyone involved. We thank KCV members for their generosity in sharing their stories, experiences and wisdom with us. 

We are very much looking forward to working together over the next 2 years to support KCV to centre and embed mental health and well-being literacy in their organisational structure, leadership, programs and activities. Our work together will focus on 2 main areas: 

• Capacity building of KCV mental health sub-committee members in their volunteer role;
• Supporting the engagement of the community.

We look ahead with anticipation to building a strong, successful, and mutually beneficial relationship.

In December 2021, VTMH held its first Lived Experience Community of Practice. This community of practice supports a diverse cohort of practitioners from a variety of workplace settings to come together and exchange ideas and experiences on a broad range of issues relating to lived experience, cultural diversity, and mental health.

The group is run bi-monthly on Microsoft Teams and aims to:

• Discuss, develop and promote strategies to amplify the voices of diverse lived and living experience within mental health care workplaces and community-based settings.
• Discuss and identify enablers and systemic barriers that diverse LLE practitioners face when trying to contribute, generate and sustain change (e.g. enablers such as supportive management and whole-of-organisation approaches to embedding lived and living experience; and barriers such as tokenistic consultation).
• Learn from diverse LLE practitioners’ stories of challenge and triumph when navigating workplaces and the mental health sector as part of the Royal Commission’s reform.
• Share knowledge relating to fundamental aspects underpinning LLE work (e.g., self-care, values, co-reflection, using an intersectional lens, practicing cultural responsiveness).

The group is led by VTMH’s Consumer Consultant, Naomi Chapman, and is supported by staff in the unit, including VTMH’s Carer Consultant Olivia Fletcher, and consultants with their own lived experience as consumers, supporters or carers.

Having facilitated the Lived Experience Community of Practice for almost two years, Naomi had the opportunity to share her learnings at The Mental Health Services Conference (TheMHS) in Adelaide last year.

During her presentation, “Dare to Care: Human Rights and Compassion in the Workplace,” Naomi mentioned the development of the community of practice program as an example of a platform where LLE workers reflect on their practice and learn from the intersection between diversity and lived experience. LLE workers are invited to bring their various lenses of their experience to conversations about how mental health, cultural diversity, and lived experience are intertwined in wellbeing challenges, recovery, and ways care services are structured to meet the needs of diverse communities.

The overall goal of this CoP is to support the lived and living experience workforce to influence practice within the sector in ways that diverse lived and living experiences are centred, exploring ways to create a more culturally responsive and inclusive system.

Membership to the CoP is open to individuals working as lived and living experience workers in public mental health and wellbeing services across Victoria. We invite you to read the Terms of Reference before joining the CoP so you can make an informed decision.  We are looking forward to hearing from those who would like to join us. Link to Terms of Reference.