Group Learning

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System highlighted the importance of lived and living experience across all levels of care and of supporting lived and living experience workers in the sector. VTMH holds a community of practice (CoP) where workers are invited to bring the 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.

VTMH supports a community of professionals to have conversations about cultural diversity and mental health and share the successes and challenges they face when putting their learning and knowledge into practice. This is a new program for 2020. The overall purpose of the CoP is to promote better practice in the delivery of culturally safe and responsive mental health care. Membership to the CoP is open to people with an interest in mental health and cultural diversity working across a range of roles within publicly funded mental health services, and other community sectors, including educational and social services, across the state of Victoria. Please note this space is currently not offered to practitioners solely working in private practice. Please read the Terms of Reference before joining.

Spiritual Health Association (SHA) in partnership with Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH) has been offering this opportunity in 2019 and 2020 for mental health practitioners to explore and nominate the challenges they may encounter when spirituality or religion comes up for their consumers. Person-centred care models include this domain, but quite often workers feel ill equipped to support people in this aspect of their lives. This reflective peer group allows practitioners to develop a deeper understanding of how to explore conversations with mental health consumers about their diverse spiritual beliefs. Available to practitioners working in publicly funded mental health programs across Victoria, including staff in clinical and community mental health services, as well as people working within mental health programs in community health and welfare services.

Reflective Conversations (previously known as ‘Cultural Conversations’) allow a team to reflect on particular challenges or recurrent themes that arise in cultural encounters across diverse backgrounds. Themes are explored in a 90 minute dialectal learning process facilitated by VTMH staff and service-based cultural portfolio holders (CPHs) in a safe and supportive environment. This continuous learning initiative is available to staff in services that are currently, or have previously been in a partnership with VTMH. The service builds on existing knowledge and skills or those built through cultural responsiveness training offered as part of a partnership with VTMH.

The Transcultural Clinical Discussion Service (previously known as The Secondary Consultation Service) offers mental health clinicians an opportunity to discuss the cultural relevance of a specific consumer’s symptoms and help-seeking behaviours or challenges with engagement. These sessions of at least 60 minutes are facilitated by VTMH staff and the referrer. Referrers are expected to coordinate and participate in the Transcultural Clinical Discussion, and complete a referral form. The service is an expansion of the VTMH External Enquiry Service. The service builds on existing knowledge and skills or those built through cultural responsiveness training offered as part of a partnership with VTMH.

VTMH provides group reflective supervision for interpreters working in mental health settings. Sessions allow interpreters to reflect on common challengers that arise in mental health encounters with their peers, in a supportive environment. Session are run by VTMH in collaboration with an external facilitator. This program began in 2020.