Author: vtmh

VTMH values the voice of lived and living experience (LLE), and continues to embed diverse voices across all our work. We would love to share reflections from the LLE team over this past year.

Naomi, Consumer Consultant:

In my role as a Consumer Consultant I bring a diverse range of identity points including the fact that I am a woman, I have lived experience of mental health challenges and I am a person of Christian faith.

Along with Olivia, our Carer Consultant, I seek to provide a transcultural lens to integrate lived/living experience with diversity instead of separating them. Many people bring both identity points and we advocate for community members to be part of decision making spaces.

I am the lead of the LLE COP (Community of Practice) within VTMH. The group runs bi-monthly and its objectives are as follows:

• Exploring how lived experience practitioners influence practice within their organisations and the mental health sector.
• Systemic barriers and enablers that face lived experience practitioners when trying to contribute or generate change. This will also become a relevant source of knowledge for the Department of Health (DoH).

I have also been part of a number of consultations. My role in supporting education strategies (such as workshops) is to help participants understand how concepts can look in real life. Furthermore, I encourage reflection on the experience of diverse communities.

Another project which I am involved in which is dear to my heart is St Vincent’s LLEW Leadership Development Strategy Group. The group meets every fortnight and my role is to champion diverse voices of lived experience who might otherwise be marginalised or overlooked.

Olivia, Carer Consultant:

I have just passed one year in my role as carer consultant, and have enjoyed working with and learning from the VTMH team members. This year, I have had the opportunity to participate in several meaningful projects such as Victoria’s Lived and Living Experience Leadership Strategy, and the 2023 VTMH Forum: Women Empowering Communities – Deepening the Dialogue in Mental Health and Wellbeing.

A highlight from this year was being a part of the working group and presenting at the Tandem and CLEW, A New Way Forward – a showcase of relational practice with families, carers, and supporters. Justin Kuay, VTMH consultant psychiatrist, and I presented a short introduction to cultural responsiveness and cultural safety when working relationally. I was honored to have been a part of such a great and pertinent event for families, carers, and supporters, and I enjoyed listening to many of the other presentations.

Naomi and I work closely together and she has been a great support and mentor to me. We are currently working on our annual review of LLE integration at VTMH and have presented a session to the wider team.

On Wednesday, 23 August 2023 our VTMH Manager, Adriana Mendoza, received an invitation from the Department of Health (DoH) to be a member of the Central Implementation Team (CIT) for the “Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Capability Framework: Our workforce, our future.” The Framework “defines the skills and attributes required of the Mental Health and Wellbeing workforce to meet the needs of consumers, family, carers and supporters across Victoria”. 

The DoH Capability Framework project team have been working with the Centre for Evidence and Implementation to ensure that there is a strategy grounded in implementation science. Additionally, the Central Implementation Team concentrates on providing recommendations and perspectives for the implementation of the Framework.

VTMH values this opportunity to join the implementation group where enabling factors and structural barriers can be discussed/addressed in the context of the implementation of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Capability Framework.

At an important moment in history, Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH) strongly supports the upcoming national vote about adding an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice (The Voice) to the Australian Constitution.

VTMH aligns with the principles of unity and understanding promoted by Reconciliation Australia, and we also endorse the stance taken by St Vincent’s Health Australia on this matter.

VTMH sees this as a big chance to bring people together and make things better. We know that health and wellness are connected to making things right between different groups of people in Australia. VTMH thinks this vote can make real changes and respect the different viewpoints of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Reconciliation Australia is determined to bring people closer together and VTMH is supportive of that journey. We believe this vote can make a big difference, and it’s part of the bigger effort to admit past wrongs, share the truth, and work together. By agreeing with Reconciliation, VTMH shows how important it is to understand the problems from the past and make Australia a fairer, more equitable, and more united place.

As the vote gets closer, VTMH stands with these important groups, showing that they all want to make things better for everyone in Australia.

For more information about the referendum, and reasons to vote yes kindly see:

https://www.yes23.com.au/

On Wednesday, 16 August 2023, the Ministerial Interdisciplinary Clinical Advisory Group (the VTMH Manager is part of this forum), and some other leaders from the Department of Health were provided with the VTMH Community engagement resource, and the following letter:

Dear Interdisciplinary Clinical Advisory group (ICAG)

This message is to share the latest VTMH resource “Community Engagement with Purpose”  with you. The objective of this resource is to support the mental health and wellbeing workforce to enhance their skills, knowledge and practice when engaging with diverse communities. This resource package includes a) the report, b) a tri fold booklet, c) the video series and 4 podcast series. VTMH will be offering education workshops based on these resources in 2024. https://vtmh.org.au/engaging-with-communities/

For VTMH, the process of developing this resource was very valuable. During the development of this resource, VTMH had the privilege of working with various individuals and community organisations in order to co-design, co-produce and collaborate. At various points, VTMH faced questions  like: “how does co-design or collaboration look like in real life”, “how do we know that community members are really feeling invited and validated at the table”, how is feedback given to communities and received from  communities” .

These were very useful questions and the VTMH project team took these questions in a considered way. Our processes included a) advisory groups from communities to mentor the VTMH project team (page 8 of report), b) 6 consultation groups drawn from a range of sectors in communities including peer workers and people with lived and living experience (page 9 of report), c) Videos and podcasts also position  diverse voices (pages 13 and 14 of report), and finally d) the tri fold booklet focused on core concepts, core practices and core actions for individual practitioners and for organisations. 

The project culminated after 2 years and was launched in August 2023. VTMH is proud to have committed, commenced and completed these resources during Covid-19 lockdown despite unprecedented challenges.

We see the VTMH resources in close alignment with the work that has been led by the Department of Health through the group called “Diverse Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework and Blueprint for Action”. VTMH is also part of this working group and we envision that these resources will be a valued addition to the diverse community framework.  We look forward to continuing joining efforts to build together a more culturally responsive system.

We hope you find the resources meaningful.