Event Category: Seminar

SPEAKERS

Naomi Chapman (VTMH Lived Experience Consultant)
Tess Marotta (Mental Health Lived Experience Advocate/Consultant)
Justin Kuay (Psychiatrist, VTMH)
Rohan Souter (Mental Health Spiritual Care Practitioner, Bendigo Health)

Topic

Mental healthcare is not just about diagnosing illnesses and prescribing treatments, it is also about understanding the social, emotional, cultural, and spiritual needs of patients. Health professionals who exhibit empathy and compassion towards their patients, listen to their concerns, and treat them with respect and dignity, are better equipped to provide quality care. Addressing these factors requires a holistic approach where healthcare providers consider the whole person, not just their symptoms or medical conditions. Incorporating heart and soul matters in healthcare does improve health outcomes, promotes healing, and helps people feel heard and understood.

As a part of their ongoing Spirituality & Diversity Discussion Project, Victorian Transcultural Mental Health and Spiritual Health Association present an opportunity for webinar attendees to participate in a conversation between former service users Naomi & Tess who will be joined by service providers Justin & Rohan to share where their experiences of spirituality were supported and explore where engagement on this level may have been enhanced to ensure greater holistic outcomes.

About the speakers

Naomi Chapman

Naomi is a Consumer Consultant with VTMH. She was a consumer representative for nearly 12 months at Northwest Area Mental Health, also known as Waratah Clinic, prior to commencing with VTMH. This included sitting on the board of ‘C-Drive’ (Consumer Drive), playing a key role in the ‘Create 2’ Art Exhibition for consumers and budding artists, and co-facilitating nurse’s intake sessions with fellow consumers.

Naomi studied IT at Swinburne University and worked in the IT industry for 16 years before transitioning to her current Consumer Consultant role, which she considers a more meaningful vocation. She is also a practising Christian, which has helped her greatly in her recovery journey.

Tess Marotta

Spirituality is the guiding light in Tess’s life, and the bedrock for her values. She has lived experience as a consumer of the mental health system, and brings her unique perspective, beliefs, and values to the work she does as a mental health advocate, and a support group facilitator.  

Tess has worked as a consultant with several health services and sits on several local government advisory committees related to Disability and the LGBTIQA+ community.

Tess is dedicated to advocating for compassionate, inclusive, and respectful spiritual care in the health care setting. 

Justin Kuay

Justin has worked with VTMH since 2012 and is an experienced general adult psychiatrist and psychotherapist who has provided educational support of psychiatry registrars through his work with both the University of Melbourne and VTMH.

On both a professional and personal note, Justin finds an enriching balance in his Christian faith with his psychiatry practice, to combine both spiritual and scientific approaches to address complex issues.

It is Justin’s hope to continue to work with VTMH, and see it become a world-leader in providing culturally responsive training and education, as well as continue to provide valuable input to guide current government policy and funding for culturally responsive mental health care.

Rohan Souter

Rohan moved into mental health spiritual care work in 2014 following diverse careers in teaching, disability and the arts. A personal and professional preoccupation of his, has always centered around two abiding questions: Who are you? How are you going?

He asks these questions every day in his role as mental health spiritual care practitioner at Bendigo Health and endeavours to respond with a caring and validating presence, inviting people to explore and give expression to their thoughts, feelings and experiences around matters of identity, connection, meaning and purpose.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

PLEASE NOTE, THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FROM WEDNESDAY, 15 MARCH 2023 TO WEDNESDAY, 29 MARCH 2023 DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES.

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED FOR THIS SEMINAR, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO SO AGAIN.

WE APOOGISE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE CAUSED.

SPEAKER

Gregory Frank, Senior Engagement Adviser (Education and Engagement Branch), Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission

Topic

At this seminar, registrants will:

• be briefed on the purpose of the Act and its objectives
• learn what is a change or suppression practice under the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021
• understand the harm caused by change or suppression practices
• identify remedies that can be taken when someone has experienced a change or suppression practice
• consider how to prevent harm and minimise vicarious liability.

More information about this legislation and change and suppression practices can be found here:

Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices | Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission

About the speaker

Gregory is a Senior Engagement Adviser with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and has over 20 years of experience in education and strategic communication.

He has extensive experience designing, delivering and evaluating workplace training and education programs which build and embed equal opportunity and human rights best practice within organisational structures and team cultures.

Gregory’s work in strategic communications and stakeholder engagement has focused on capacity building, awareness programs and change and risk communication.

He is experienced in a broad range of sectors including secondary and tertiary education, the Arts and State and Local Government sectors.

His qualifications include

• Master of Communication (RMIT University)
• Graduate Certificate in information Technology Education (Deakin University)
• Graduate Diploma in Education (University of Melbourne)
• Bachelor of Science (University of Melbourne)

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

SPEAKERS

Anagha Joshi, Senior Research Officer, Australian Institute of Family Studies

Julie Ngwabi, Senior Child Mental Health Advisor – Health, Emerging Minds

Chris Dolman, Senior Practice Development Officer, Emerging Minds

Topic

Children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities represent a large and growing proportion of children in Australia. Practitioners are frequently interfacing with families with CALD backgrounds who face unique challenges that can affect access to services or children’s mental health. Despite this, for practitioners working with these families, there is limited research on child mental health in Australian CALD communities to guide their practice.

This presentation will focus on findings from a scoping review, conducted for Emerging Minds, to understand what factors affect child mental health in CALD communities in Australia. It will also provide key implications for practice when working with children and families from CALD backgrounds.

Emerging Minds: National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health supports practitioners to engage with parents in early intervention and prevention conversations about the social and emotional wellbeing of their children. As part of this, Emerging Minds is continuing to expand on a range of resources to support practitioners working with culturally diverse children and families. This presentation will provide an overview of several aspects of this work, including the importance of practitioners:

• working in culturally competent, culturally curious and child-focused ways, regardless of their practice setting
• developing cultural understandings to work effectively with families from cultures other than their own
• having an awareness of how their own beliefs, values and assumptions are shaped by culture
• understanding how respectful, collaborative and curious conversations with children and families can help them to reconnect with skills, wisdoms, their community and cultural traditions, and respond to the problems they are facing.

About the speakers

Anagha is experienced in evidence synthesis and knowledge translation, and has produced practice papers, resource sheets, short articles and webinars to increase uptake of evidence in the child, family and welfare sector. She recently completed a scoping review to understand what Australian research exists on child mental health in culturally and linguistically diverse communities with Emerging Minds.

Anagha has a clinical and program implementation background, with experience working with diverse communities in Australia and internationally.

Julie completed General Nursing training in Zimbabwe, and a Diploma in Psychiatric Nursing before moving to Australia with her family in 2004. In Australia, she completed a Graduate Certificate in Nursing (Dual Diagnosis) and a Masters Degree in Mental Health Nursing. Her passion is family-focused mental health care. For the past 10 years she has worked as a Perinatal Mental Health Clinician, COPMI Coordinator and Family and Carer Consultant in Sydney, NSW.

Julie believes in a holistic and systemic approach to mental health care to achieve positive mental health outcomes. She is also passionate about CALD and social justice issues. In her spare time, she volunteers to support recently arrived refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the community.

Chris is a social worker who has been working for the past twenty years with individuals, couples and families facing a broad range of concerns. Chris lives in Adelaide and currently works with Emerging Minds in practice development, and as a practitioner with Rural & Remote Mental Health Service within South Australia Health. He has previously worked as a counsellor, supervisor and manager in a family and relationships counselling and family violence service.

Chris is a member of the Dulwich Centre teaching faculty and has delivered training in narrative therapy locally as well in Beijing, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Kigali and Singapore.  

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

SPEAKERS

George Yengi, Co-Founder, Me + Mental Health Project

Moses Ronyi, Co-Founder, Me + Mental Health Project and Community Advocate

Adongwot Manyoul, Communications professional, youth advocate and thought leader

Lameck Maneneka, Student, Victoria University

Katherine Monson, Social Worker, Orygen

Topic

This seminar will showcase a theatre production project, produced by members of the South Sudanese and other African Australian communities. The production, “Me + Mental Health”, takes the format of a dialogue theatre, and was initially aimed at promoting intergenerational dialogue about mental health in the community.

Whilst the initial aim was focused on encouraging conversations in communities about mental health, as it evolved, what became apparent was the fact that there needed to be a greater connection between communities and mental health service providers.

The project members are therefore keen to also involve service providers in this conversation, as they believe this is an opportunity for mutual learnings to take place.  

The seminar will feature some of the founding members and actors involved in the production, who will share and reflect on their involvement, and on how the Me + Mental Health project is supporting conversations about mental health in the community.

About the speakers

George is the co-founder of Me + Mental Health Project and the founder of Lorrok. Lorrok is an African Australian not-for-profit organisation that aims to build stronger and more resilient African Australian communities. George’s homeland is South Sudan. His family migrated to Australia in late 1999 and settled in Adelaide. Since then, George has grown his passion for community work and works within many community organization’s that aim to support the development of young people, particularly those from migrant backgrounds around Australia. George hopes the Me +Mental Health project can add to all the hard work that is being done to build a better tomorrow for all.

Moses is a community enabler who has been working in community for a few years, with a passion for community strengthening and development. His current role involves working with vulnerable community members and the wider community to connect with services within local municipality. As community advocates, Moses and George founded Me + Mental Health to create mental health awareness within these communities and to find simple solutions to create such understanding, and normalise mental health as a discussion topic within homes. Moses has lived in Melbourne, Australia for over 20 years. He came to Australia at a young age to obtain primary school education in Australia. Moses has worked in various non-for profit organisations and is now working for a local city council.

Adongwot is an experienced communications professional, youth advocate and thought leader. As a bi-cultural consultant, radio host and MC, her passions lie in supporting the community to achieve social cohesion through the elimination of racism and discrimination and promoting intergenerational dialogue. Adongwot participated in the Me + Mental Health Production, playing Nyanamiol, the aunty figure who understood the plight of both the older and younger generation.

Lameck was born in Congo and raised in Australia. Lameck is a current university student, studying Criminal Justice at Victoria University. Motivated with the need to help others, Lameck participates in many community events and programs, predominately those that look to advocate, educate, and empower the different types of cultures presented within Australia. Having participated in the Me + Mental Health production, Lameck was given the leading role of James, a young man who struggles to understand and accept the African social ideology, that mental health is nothing but ‘masajat’ otherwise known as mood swings. 

Katherine is a social worker, working in the Community Development team at Orygen.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

SPEAKERS

Helen Makregiorgos, Civil Justice Program, Victoria Legal Aid

Simona, Lived Experience Expert, Victoria Legal Aid

Topic

IMHA is a free state-wide non legal advocacy service for people at risk of or subject to compulsory treatment in Victoria. The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System recommended that non legal advocacy services should be available to all consumers who want it and hence the need for a opt out system.

IMHA has been working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities for the past 7 years and identified that these communities are often not able to access culturally safe mental health services. The Royal Commission recommendation will provide opportunity for people from these communities to access non legal advocacy services that can support them to understand and enact their rights, including their rights to mental health services that are culturally safe and responsive.

About the speakers

Helen currently manages non legal advocacy services at Victoria Legal Aid including IMHA. Helen established and currently manages IMHA and IFAS. Helen is a social worker who has worked in a range of sectors including homelessness, health, women’s health, sexual assault, family violence and mental health. Helen is passionate about social justice, human rights, culturally safe practices, and codesign and coproduction. Helen has completed a Masters in research with a focus on maternal mental health and referral pathways. She has also published work in the areas of non-legal advocacy in mental health and maternal mental health and family violence.

Simona is passionate about consumer-focused and trauma-informed health care. She is a member of the Independent Mental Health Advocacy’s Speaking from Experience group. Her advocacy journey commenced in 2010 at the Consumer Leadership Conference run by Our Consumer Place. Between 2011-2012 she was a Consumer and Carer Advisory Group member at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Simona has been a peer support worker, holds a Bachelor of Psychological Science, and has volunteered in a range of community settings for over two decades. She enjoys hiking, playing guitar and writing poetry.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Trini Abascal – Co-founder and Director of Latin Stories Australia and Research and Evaluation Coordinator at Family Life

Rafaela Lopez OAM – Anthropologist and Historian

Cristy Abela – Co-founder and Board Director of Latin Stories Australia and Senior Policy Adviser at Essential Services Commission

Topic

The “Nuestras Voces” project is an initiative of Latin Stories Australia and was funded by the Victorian Government with the aim of increasing understanding of the migrant and refugee experiences, through the eyes of the Spanish-speaking communities’ members who arrived in Melbourne between the 1960s and 1980s.

This project is centred on social harmony and connection. It explores migrant and refugee settlement themes such as: settlement challenges, the refugee voice, multiculturalism and the transformational experience of education and opportunities for migrants and the experiences of the seniors.

One of the deliverables of the project was a documentary film which is a powerful reflection on the strength and resilience of migrants.

About the speakers

Dr. Trini Abascal – Trini is one of the Co-founders and Directors of Latin Stories Australia and a Research and Evaluation Coordinator at Family Life. Trini is passionate about inclusion and social justice which is reflected in her work and the projects she develops and delivers, as part of Latin Stories Australia. She has over six years’ experience managing community projects; eight years’ experience conducting research activities and over two years’ experience undertaking evaluation on community-based projects across a diverse range of population groups.

Rafaela Lopez OAM – Rafaela is an anthropologist and historian who has a diverse professional background, having worked in social research and community services for close to four decades. This includes Migrant and Refugee settlement, Disability Support, Aged Care Services, Community Housing, Women’s Health Programs and Domestic Violence Services.

She has published many articles, particularly in relation to immigrant issues including issues for Hispanics living in Australia. In the early 1980s, whilst part of the Executive Committee of the Spanish Latin American Welfare Centre (CELAS now UNITED), Rafaela was part of a group of Spanish, Latin Americans, and Australians who responded to the needs of highly traumatised recently arrived refugees, whose countries were under right-wing dictatorship (Chile, Uruguay and Argentina) or undergoing a Civil War (El Salvador) and established the Foundation for Survivors of Torture and Trauma. Now known simply as Foundation House and now working with Australians of all backgrounds.

Rafaela’s community contribution has been recognised, with a number of awards, by the Federal as well as the Victorian Governments including the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her ‘long-term contribution to the Victorian Community’.

Cristy Abela is a senior Policy Adviser at the Essential Services Commission, which is the economic independent regulator of water, electricity and transport of the Victorian Government. Cristy is working on the State’s Water Price Review. She came to Melbourne in 2011 to study her Masters of Environment at Melbourne University. She loves the Mornington Peninsula and watching Australian sunsets. She is the Director of the board and co-founder of Latin Stories Australia. 

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

Spiritual Health Lived Experience Advisory Committee (SHLEAC) in collaboration with Spiritual Health Association.

SPEAKERS

Evan Bichara – Mental Health Advocate, Community Educator, Researcher & Publisher of ‘Strengths Model of Case Management’ and Multicultural Advisor

Hannah Friebel – Consumer Consultant, Adjunct Research Associate, Project Lead, Higher Education Student, Artist and Documentary Film Maker

Maria Dimopoulos – Artist, Museum Curator and Lived Experience Consultant

Kevin Treloar – Peer Cadet, Student and Volunteer Buddhist Spiritual Care Practitioner

Jenny Greenham – Mental Health Leader, Spiritual Health Association

Topic

This presentation will introduce participants to the work SHELAC is undertaking to advance mental health reform to reflect holistic person-centred care.

We will review our understanding of spirituality in the contemporary context and how it supports personal recovery.

Four expert lived experience panellists will share how their connection to their spirituality has supported and enhanced their mental health, wellbeing and recovery. They will outline their vision for compassionate person-centred mental health care that considers the spiritual domain of human expression and brings us another step closer to realising the biopsychosocial-spiritual model of holistic care.

About the speakers

Evan Bichara has been working as a mental health advocate for forty years around Australia in various roles including researcher, educator, lived experience narrator and peer support worker. He is well known to VTMH through his many years collaborating in the multi-cultural mental health space. Evan has worked tirelessly to engage, encourage, and empower people.

Hannah Friebel identifies as a Neurodivergent ‘Survivor’ of the mental health system, currently working as a Consumer Consultant at Monash Health. Hannah seeks to advance the future of consumer leadership and person-centred care and is trained to post-graduate level in Spiritual Care (with Clinical Pastoral Education placement in the public mental health system).

Maria Dimopoulous is a Greek-Australian writer and visual artist, born in Melbourne who began her lived experience advocacy work in 2004. She has studied Fine Arts, Museum curatorship and is currently completing a Certificate IV in Mental Health at Swinburne University. Maria is passionate about the place of spirituality in healthcare.

Kevin Treloar has been a Buddhist practitioner of 20 years and this led him to become a Spiritual Care Practitioner and recently a Peer Worker Cadet with EACH. His spiritual learnings have shown him that to maintain well-being he must live in harmony with the truth of what it means to be a sentient being.

Jenny Greenham feels privileged to work at the very fertile intersection of mental health and spiritual care, two areas of life that benefit from a steady focus to effect inner harmony and wellbeing. In her role as Mental Health Leader at Spiritual Health Association she explores this phenomenon from diverse vantage points, with different stakeholders to influence health policy for whole person outcomes.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

Please note, Trybooking is no longer supported by Internet Explorer so you will have to use another web browser such as Google Chrome, in order to make your booking.

SPEAKERS

Jasmine Phillips and Dawt Tha Sung Thang Eng, Cohealth 

Topic

This presentation will share Cohealth’s community engagement framework for community-led practice with bicultural workers. The framework will be explored through the lens of a mental health prevention program, co-design and delivered by 3 bicultural workers, working with their communities in the West of Melbourne.

About the speakers

Jasmine Phillips

Jasmine is a community development practitioner. She has managed the bicultural program at Cohealth since its inception; a program that aims to increase opportunities for people from refugee backgrounds to lead the design and delivery of community-led projects as bicultural workers. The program provides bicultural workers with capacity building, networking, employment and supervision and seeks to increase sector capacity to employ bicultural workers and build culturally safe work places that are inclusive and facilitate self-determination.

Dawt Tha Sung Thang Eng 

Born in Chin State of Burma, Dawt Tha arrived in Australia in 2010. She obtained a Bachelor of Nursing Degree in 2020 and has worked as a bicultural worker since 2018.  

Dawt Tha is passionate about supporting her communities’ health and wellbeing and has been working collaboratively with her community to deliver projects that meet their needs and priorities.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

SPEAKERS

Jenny Greenham, Mental Health Leader, Spiritual Health Association
Justin Kuay, Consultant Psychiatrist, Victorian Transcultural Mental Health

Topic

Spiritual Health Association and Victorian Transcultural Mental Health have collaborated since 2017 to present a suite of learning opportunities for mental health workers. The objective is to explore spirituality and diversity and how workers might engage with people for spiritual care outcomes. The collaboration draws upon diverse skill sets which support 90-minute themed small group reflective conversation.

Into its fourth year the project continues to engage a range of clinical, community and peer workforce personnel. Participating professionals are supported to nominate and explore the challenges they experience when addressing the spiritual dimension of human expression and need in what has traditionally been a hostile medical model environment.

The presentation will review the evolution of this reflective practice model, share learnings and evaluation data gathered over three years facilitating Spirituality and Diversity Discussions.

About the speakers

Jenny feels privileged to work at the very fertile intersection of mental health and spiritual care, two areas of life that benefit from a steady focus to effect inner harmony and wellbeing. In her role as Mental Health Leader at Spiritual Health, she explores this phenomenon from diverse vantage points, bringing together different stakeholders in the ever-present challenge to influence health policy to reflect genuine holistic person-centred care.

Justin Kuay, Consultant psychiatrist, VTMH

Justin is an experienced, general adult psychiatrist and psychotherapist who enjoys working in education and service development. He recognises the importance of acknowledging spiritual beliefs and their role in aiding recovery from mental health issues.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

SPEAKER

Feifei Liao, Co-founder and Managing Director at Story is Connection; Project Officer at Whittlesea International Student Wellbeing Hub; Mental Health Speaker at Batyr; Contemporary dancer; Founder of Feifei Curiosity; and Recovery Educator at Discovery College

Topic

The session will provide an overview of innovative ways of leveraging storytelling, arts and lived experience to explore mental health challenges multicultural communities face and support them to navigate their own journey for prevention and recovery. Feifei will share her lived experience in mental health, unpack some stories of international students dealing with mental health, and reflect on some gaps between mental health service providers and the students. The session will briefly showcase some creative projects co-designed with multicultural communities who have lived experience in mental health and artists that achieved to improve our understanding of specific challenges they have and paved accessible therapeutic pathways. Some artistic practices involved include theatre, film, dance, poetry and storytelling meditation.

About the speaker

Feifei Liao is the co-founder and managing director of the Not-for-Profit Organisation ‘Story is Connection,’ focusing on amplifying the authentic voice of international students and building their capacity through theatre and film productions. As the project officer of the Whittlesea International Student Wellbeing Hub at the City of Whittlesea, she has been co-designing with international students to deliver various activities to support their wellbeing during the pandemic. She is a speaker from Batyr, sharing her lived experience of mental health with young people.

She has worked for multicultural communities for more than a decade across universities, not-for-profit organisations, local councils and the state government. She is passionate about inspiring individuals to live life fully through intersectional, strength-based, co-design and grassroots approaches.

Eligibility

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.