SPEAKERS

Jacinda Erich (Project Coordinator Bicultural Community Engagement & Wellbeing), Mitra Zarrati (Bicultural Community Engagement Worker) and Cindy Huang (Bicultural Community Engagement Worker) from Access Health and Community

Topic

Cultural Connections to Wellbeing (CC2W) is a twelve-month project, funded by Eastern Metrepolitan Primary Health Network (EMPHN), to engage with community members to increase young multicultural people and their family’s access to mental health services.

The project engaged a bicultural workforce, from the Persian and Chinese communities, to engage with community in the Boroondara and Manningham Council areas. Together, the project team took time to establish and build strong relationships with a range of multicultural community leaders and stakeholders across multiple sectors from youth focused services to education providers and multicultural organisations. These relationships have been key to the project’s success so far, providing advice to steer the project, ensuring our work is culturally appropriate and engaging, and have supported community engagement activities.

The project team have chosen to align strongly with the principals of co-design to ensure service users feel like they are a genuine part of the process. We asked community what the problem is that needs to be addressed to achieve the project aim. This is what young multicultural people told us:

Multicultural young people experience a range of issues when trying to access mental health care. These challenges include a lack of trust due to past negative experiences and not enough therapists who understand their culture. They often don’t know what services are available, and the high costs and long wait times make it even harder.

Cultural beliefs and values influence the way mental health is viewed, understood, and experienced, which can affect how individuals seek help, talk about their struggles, or even recognise there is a problem. Gender roles and generational differences also prevent many from seeking help. These barriers lead young people to rely on informal support or stop seeing a professional altogether, making it harder for them to improve their mental health and wellbeing.

Following the development of the problem statement, the team engaged multicultural young people in a survey or participatory engagement process to test the themes and explore solutions. This work was recently completed and is currently being analysed.

Initial themes emerging are:
• Flexible services models
• Define “low cost”
• Conversations about culture that are meaningful and build trust.
• Documentation in other languages contributes to cultural safety.
• Promote to specific communities.
• Translation processes need reviewing.
• Resource GPs
• Hold discussions with community.
• Normalise mental health

About the speakers

Jacinda Erich – Project Coordinator Bicultural Community Engagement & Wellbeing

Jacinda lives in the outer east of Melbourne in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges where community is everything. After completing a degree in disability, it was working with community to strengthen its capacity to be more inclusive of people with disability that fuelled Jacinda’s passion for the power of community. 

Jacinda has worked in local government and the not-for-profit sector in a multitude of roles from volunteer coordination, community development to health promotion and case management which bring a unique lens to her work. 

Jacinda describes herself as a social justice warrior who is committed to breaking down oppressive systems and that her life’s purpose is to continue working towards health equity for all.

Mitra Zarrati – Bicultural Community Engagement Worker

Mitra Zarrati is a Bicultural Community Engagement Worker at Access Health and Community. Originally from Iran, she immigrated to Australia three years ago and was selected as a Global Talent in 2021 in recognition of her collaboration and expertise in community engagement projects specifically with multicultural background people.

With extensive experience in community-based health projects, Mitra brings both lived and professional insight into her role. She is passionate about improving mental health access for multicultural young people and has facilitated culturally tailored workshops and engagement initiatives within Persian-speaking communities. Mitra is deeply committed to building inclusive, responsive health systems that reflect the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Cindy Huang -Bicultural Community Engagement Worker

Cindy Huang is a Bicultural Community Engagement Worker at Access Health & Community. Having migrated from China as an international student in Year 8, she is now completing her final semester of a Philosophy and Sociology degree at the University of Melbourne. Cindy is passionate about mental health and is committed to amplifying the voices of multicultural young people and improving the accessibility of mental health services for diverse communities.

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.  

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