VTMH has been delighted to return to face-to-face workshops this year as part of our state-wide calendar, in addition to continuing to deliver workshops online.
We have enjoyed sharing our face-to-face workshops from a variety of training venues from across Victoria, including Shepparton, Bendigo, Ballarat, Dandenong and Melbourne Inner North and CBD.
The state-wide training program has offered a range of workshops including our 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 and our new workshop, Community Engagement with Purpose – Approaches to Consider in Mental Health Settings. We have been thrilled to connect with practitioners from a broad variety of mental health services and roles through these workshops.
VTMH workshops are open to and provided free to staff working in Victoria’s state-funded mental health workforce. This includes public clinical and community mental health services, as well as state-funded mental health programs within community health and social services.
Staff working in a range of roles within this workforce, including but not limited to community rehabilitation and recovery workers, lived experience workers, mental health nursing, social work, occupational therapy, psychiatry, community engagement roles, program leaders/project workers and administration roles, are invited to register.
To stay connected with upcoming dates, please join our mailing list here
This is a new section to our twice yearly e-newsletter. We realise that while many of you reading this do work with some members of our team, many of you don’t know who we are!
To change this, we have decided to share with you an interview with one of our team members in each of these e-newsletters.
This month, Justin Kuay has kindly agreed to be interviewed.
Name: Justin Kuay
Job title: Consultant Psychiatrist
Qualifications: MBBS, FRANZCP, M. Psychiatry, B MedSci, cert. psychotherapy psych. (RANZCP)
Time at VTMH: 12 years
Tell us your work story: I graduated from Melbourne University Medical School in 2004 and since then, have worked at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, predominantly at VTMH. For the other half of my time, I work in private practice providing general adult psychiatric treatment including psychotherapy.
I have also worked at the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House) for approximately 7 years before finishing my time there in 2019.
What attracted you to this role at VTMH? I previously worked at VTMH as a registrar before fully qualifying as a consultant psychiatrist and so had a chance to see the valuable work that VTMH does. What I liked about VTMH was the opportunity to promote culturally responsive care both at individual and organisational levels. During this process, VTMH encourages reflective practice both within VTMH as a team as well as facilitating similar spaces for discussion with organizations and individuals. Coming from a background in practicing psychotherapy, I really value and see the effectiveness of this in VTMH’s work.
Proudest achievement/s while working at VTMH: Being involved in the spirituality and diversity discussion project.
What do you hope for and envision for the future of VTMH? I hope that VTMH can continue to help support the implementation of government frameworks and policy in the cultural responsiveness space. I hope that organisations VTMH works with can see the benefit of engaging diverse populations and provide them with culturally responsive care.
What do you enjoy most about your role? Facilitating reflective spaces.
What do you like to do in your free time? Play piano, drums, guitar and reading.
What’s the last book you read? The Edge of Collapse series (a post-apocalyptic thriller) by Kyla Stone
What’s the first concert you ever attended? Dream Theatre in Melbourne.
What’s the next place on your travel bucket list? South Korea
Tell us something we might be surprised to hear about you? I like 80s-style rock music and metal-style guitar. I also have a deep connection to my Christian faith.
We currently have a vacancy available for a permanent, part-time (16 hours per week) role as a Communications Consultant with VTMH.
This is a new role within VTMH and the successful candidate will be responsible for leading and executing the development, implementation and assessment of Communication strategies for the Unit.
Please visit the St Vincent’s Hospital careers page here to find out more about this exciting new role.
The link above should take you directly to the advertisement on the St Vincent’s Hospital website. If it does not, you can find the job advertised on Page 2 under St Vincent’s Public Hospital Melbourne Careers.
Originally sent as a campaign to our mailing list on 22 November 2023.
VTMH has taken some time following the Voice Referendum to reflect and attempt to find words to express our disappointment regarding this outcome. We deeply acknowledge the courage and generosity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and leaders who extended this invitation to the Australian community to walk together in this journey for learning and healing together.
In the weeks since the referendum we have reflected on the impacts that colonisation has had in shaping practices in the mental health sector, including our service, and the continued challenges faced in providing culturally responsive care given the history of these lands.
VTMH deeply admires the strength and resilience of First Nations communities across the country. We commit to rising strong, leaning in, and to finding ways to honour our commitment to learning and healing together.
We encourage teams and individuals in all sectors to continue joining collective efforts to support a more culturally safe and humanistic system and society.
To learn more about what is happening in Victoria towards truth, treaty and voice, we encourage you to visit the links below:
In October 2023, VTMH held a forum entitled “Women Empowering Communities – Deepening the Dialogue in Mental Health and Wellbeing.” This event was supported by the Darebin Intercultural Centre and was held at the Preston Shire Hall.
This year’s theme was inspired by VTMH’s decade long work with grassroots community work undertaken by women to strengthen mental health and wellbeing. The forum featured expert speakers and was captured live on screen by Debbie Wood, a digital scribe (https://debbiewood.com.au/). The forum was hosted by Tigist Kebede (https://polapractice.com.au/), who also facilitated the Q&A sessions. Furthermore, she engaged the speakers by interconnecting their key messages throughout the day.
The first keynote speech was by Nyadol Nyuon (https://www.instagram.com/nyadolnyuon/), who stressed the importance of self-care and knowing that “being you is enough” when taking on an advocacy role, and the critical need for funding, and governmental support. Nyadol also highlighted how community volunteers, particularly women, are undervalued.
The second speaker was Sheree Lowe (https://www.firstpeoplesvic.org/), who acknowledged her strong connection to country, culture and kin. Sheree brought the audience’s attention to the continued impact of colonisation; the need for treaty; and the social and emotional wellbeing model outlined by Indigenous women. We would like to thank Sheree and the First People’s Assembly of Victoria for their commitment to the forum, and for working hard to find us a speaker after Sue-Anne Hunter, and Ngarra Murray were unable to attend due to their respective important work at the Yoorook Justice Commission and the First People’s Assembly of Victoria.
The next presentation was delivered by Dr Mario Peucker, Linda Yang, and Huwieda Idris, the team working with Shire Councils on an anti-racism project. All three speakers stressed the importance of creating safe spaces, and that community-led efforts against racism require lived experience.
Mary Crooks (https://www.vwt.org.au/), delivered the afternoon keynote speech on women’s struggle, agency and achievement. Mary articulated Australia’s long history of oppression, and stressed the importance of truly knowing and understanding our past.
Our final session included snapshot presentations by Nicki Johnson, and Fazlinda Faroo. Nicki led the choir members of the inclusive Community Music Victoria choir, who introduced the audience to sing and respond to the “we honour the land” acknowledgement song. She conducted the audience to chorus along in harmony, and also spoke of the power of music and its ability to ‘soothe the savage beast inside’.
Fazlinda Faroo’s presentation was on conversational journeys with Muslim women. She emphasized the physical symptoms of mental health, as well as the importance of sharing stories for Muslim women in Australia.
Unfortunately Rocca Salcedo was unable to join the forum on the day to present on “Dance and Roll”: a wheelchair dancing project that she founded.
The audience heard a meaningful statement that was written by Rocca, and watched two video clips about her project and the philosophy behind it. You can watch these here and here.
Rocca is known as a person who deeply connects with human rights, and advocacy especially for those who use wheelchairs. We were grateful to have her contribution at this forum as she found a way to make her presence felt.
The day was wrapped up with MC, Tigist Kebede, and digital scribe, Debbie Wood, summing up key messages. Read more about the event here.
Nyadol NyounSheree LoweTigist KebedeGraphic Illustration by Debbie Wood
This is a fairly new section to our twice yearly e-newsletter. We realise that while many of you reading this do work with some members of our team, many of you don’t know who we are!
To change this, we have decided to share with you an interview with one of our team members in each of these e-newsletters.
In July 2023, we shared our interview with Consumer Consultant Naomi Chapman. This time, Adriana Mendoza has kindly agreed to be interviewed.
Name: Adriana Mendoza
Job title: Manager at Victorian Transcultural Mental Health
Qualifications: Psychology
Time at VTMH: Almost 6 years
Tell us your work story: I have extensive national and international experience as a leader and mental health worker. I have worked in various regions of Colombia, Northern Territory and Victoria dedicating my professional life to contribute to the mental health sector and organisational reforms to respond to the realities of diverse communities.
Supervising, mentoring and coaching mental health practitioners has been a key component of my work, as I deeply value accompanying self-reflection processes.
I have also worked directly with consumers, family members, carers and supporters providing counselling and psychotherapy. In Colombia I worked with survivors of political violence, in Alice Springs with First Nations communities, and in Victoria with consumers and carers experiencing very challenging mental health situations.
Working in collaboration and co-creating possibilities have been part of my philosophy. For example, in the Northern Territory I supported services and community leaders to co-design wellbeing services with and for First Nation communities. In Victoria I have also supported community and mental health organisations to enhance their service quality and internal organisational culture. The meaning of partnership and collaboration has been deeply enriched by working alongside lived and living experience workers, as well as community members.
Working at VTMH over the last years has been deeply meaningful in many ways. I believe that my role as VTMH Manager is connected with all previous roles that I have undertaken nationally and internationally.
The mission of the VTMH Unit and the dedication of each team member make me feel very connected with VTMH. I can genuinely say that VTMH is fully committed to build the capacity of the public Mental Health and Wellbeing sector to deliver services that respond to the needs and strengths of diverse communities. VTMH is leading and joining efforts to build and sustain a safe, inclusive and responsive mental health system.
We do this by:
a) Providing recommendations to governments, peak bodies, and stakeholder groups to bring a transcultural and intersectional lens to key priority areas.
b) Supporting organisations to implement organisation-wide approaches to embed cultural responsiveness.
c) Strengthening the capacity of the mental health and wellbeing workforce by providing opportunities for learning, self-reflection, and sharing of knowledge.
In the context of the Mental health reform, I have found the conversations and collaboration with the leads of various organisations very stimulating and relevant. This includes mental health and wellbeing providers, the Department of Health (DoH), Lived and Living experience sector, Community sector, and strategic cross-sector platforms.
I have also found internal work at VTMH to be deeply committed to our own growth as a Unit, implementing strategies to maintain the quality of our programs and providing supportive spaces for practice development and critical reflections. At the VTMH Unit “collective aspirations” are shared, and “walking the talk” is a driving force for our internal development and practice.
I am looking forward to continue joining efforts that promote a more humanistic, inclusive and culturally responsive system
What attracted you to this role at VTMH? The mission. Supporting the mental health and wellbeing sector to enhance cultural responsiveness in Victoria is completely connected to all parts of my identity as a person and worker.
Proudest achievement/s while working at VTMH: Seeing VTMH growing, which meant creating two new ongoing positions at VTMH: 1) Carer Consultant, and 2) Monitoring, Evaluation and Research consultant.
What do you hope for and envision for the future of VTMH? Continue as leaders for change in the mental health reform, supporting the sector, organisations and individuals to embed and sustain culturally responsive practices, cultivating and creating more alliances and opportunity for collaboration, supporting inclusive practice where diverse voices are invited and valued and continue responding to the stages of the Mental health reform.
What do you enjoy most about your role? After working hard on a project and “planting seeds”, I really enjoy the feeling that I get when I can see “the fruits”. Seeing meaningful results takes time and effort.
What do you like to do in your free time? Going to restaurants with my kids and husband, talking with my mother and family who are in Colombia (even if this is through WhatsApp), watching a good movie, playing with my kids, enjoying a sunny day with family and friends.
What’s the last book you read? “The book of joy. Lasting happiness in a changing world” by his holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Demond Tutu with Douglas Abrams.
What’s the first concert you ever attended? Salsa music, when I was in high school.
What’s the next place on your travel bucket list? The Philippines! My mother in law is coming from Colombia to visit us, so we will have a family trip!
Tell us something we might be surprised to hear about you? Everyday in the morning, my husband and I have a mantra that we say with our kids to encourage self-confidence and self-love in them.
We’re delighted to share that VTMH had a larger presence at The Mental Health Services (TheMHS) Conference this year, with four submissions being accepted. These included two workshop sessions, a paper presentation and poster presentation. These touched on a variety of projects and themes VTMH has been involved in over the past year.
The two workshop presentations highlighted our Partners in Diversity Program and a recently released Community Engagement Resource. The workshop, Embedding cultural responsiveness in a mental health service – addressing human rights through equity of access, was co-facilitated with the two partnership consultants from Better Health Network, who have been leading the Partners in Diversity work at their service. TheMHS provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the work that VTMH and Better Health Network have been undertaking over the last three years to support organisational cultural responsiveness.
The second workshop, Engaging with community: Introducing a co-designed resource for workers to strengthen engagement with diverse communities, was focused on sharing a suite of new resources to support mental health practitioners and organisations to undertake community engagement work. The resources were produced as part of the two-year Community Engagement with Purpose Resource Project that had just been launched at the beginning of August 2023. The interest in the resource was evident given the number of audience members in attendance. The workshop featured a panel which included a number of Advisory Group Members who reflected and shared their knowledge and experience of working with communities around mental health and wellbeing.
VTMH also had the opportunity to present a paper entitled Dare to Care…Human Rights and Compassion in the Workplace. This paper aimed to address how education and training of the workforce could better support compassionate and rights-based services. Most importantly, how would the experience of people seeking support and wellness be improved? The session generated conversation about cultural safety and cultural humility and how sharing lived experience helps bring these ideas to life.
Finally, in collaboration with Headspace Dandenong/Hastings site, VTMH also submitted a poster for display entitled Improving cultural responsiveness: Reflections from a short-term localised project at a youth mental health service. The poster told the story of how the two services collaborated on a short-term pilot project, which aimed to explore and identify organisational cultural responsiveness learning gaps and considerations for addressing these.
VTMH continues to strengthen its relationship with the rural and regional mental health sector through the VTMH Rural and Regional Approach Implementation Project Showcases.
The showcases provide an opportunity for participants to communicate the needs of their organisations as well as forging collaborative relationships with VTMH.
To date, we have showcased our services and programs to six of the eight rural and regional mental health services:
Bendigo – March 2023
Goulburn – April 2023
Loddon Mallee (Mildura) – April 2023
Albury/Wodonga – May 2023 (Online)
Grampians (Ballarat) – July 2023
Barwon (Barwon Health) – November 2023
We have also showcased our services at:
Eastern Health Allied Health New Graduates Day – July 2023
Tasmania Victoria Multicultural Advisory Forum – September 2023 (Online)
Ballarat Mental Health Collective Expo – October 2023
We are planning to showcase at Latrobe Valley Mental Health Services (Gippsland) in April 2024 and Warrnambool Mental Health Services (South West) in June 2024.
We believe showcasing our services in the rural and regional areas is having a positive impact on the sector. We have observed a significant number of registrants for our monthly Spirituality and Diversity Discussions and Seminars from Bendigo, Shepparton, Mildura, Ballarat, Albury/Wodonga and the Latrobe Valley Health mental health services. We hope the numbers of participants from all the Victorian rural and regional mental health areas will continue to rise.
We are grateful for the hard work of the Rural and Regional Approach Liaison Group members in facilitating our visits. We look forward to working together on the next stage of the project.
We are happy to share that the Conversations about Community Engagement in Mental Health Podcast Series is now complete. The final episode was launched in November this year. There are now four episodes in this series, all focused on expanding on themes explored in the Community Engagement with Purpose Resource Project.
Episodes are:
– Diversity of Communities: Who is left behind? – Varied Lived Experience: Not one size fits all. – Reimagining Community Work: How to start the journey of decolonisation in Australian healthcare? – Talking about Power in Engaging with Communities.
