Better health and ageing for all Australians

Programs

Multicultural mental health

The Department of Health and Ageing is committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) mental health consumers, their families and carers. Most Australians will be directly or indirectly touched by the impact of mental illness at some point in their lives and for people of culturally diverse backgrounds this can involve many extra challenges.

Mental health

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... Fact sheet
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The Fact sheet: Mental health services for CALD communities provides details of the currently funded mental health services for people from CALD backgrounds. This includes information on the multicultural mental health project and details of expanded programs such as improved Access to Allied Psychological Services, the Program of Assistance for Survivors and Torture and Trauma, and specific suicide prevention projects.

Mental Health in Multicultural Australia

The Mental Health in Multicultural Australia (MHiMA) project provides a national focus for advice and support to providers and governments on mental health and suicide prevention for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. This includes representation and support of CALD communities' interests in the mental health sector and raising awareness of mental illness and suicide prevention in CALD communities, highlighting the role that culture can play in the provision of appropriate and accessible mental health care.

The MHiMA project works to promote mental health, primary care and community awareness of mental health issues in CALD communities. It seeks to engage with, establish and maintain productive relationships with relevant stakeholders such as the CALD community, consumers and carers, state and territory mental health specialists and mainstream services, relevant government agencies, non government organisations and the tertiary sector. Through these engagements the MHiMA project aims to improve access, responsiveness and quality of mental health services and suicide prevention programs for people from CALD backgrounds, and also facilitate access to information about mental health and relevant services.

The focus of the MHiMA project is directed toward building networks, collaborative partnerships, developing effective strategies, encouraging evaluation, research and innovation, assisting to build CALD community capacity and providing strategic policy input to Commonwealth and state and territory governments.

The eight work domains are:

  1. Promotion, prevention, early intervention, stigma reduction and suicide prevention
  2. Policy development and implementation
  3. Consumer and carer participation
  4. Community engagement and partnerships
  5. Communication
  6. Service access coordination and continuity of care
  7. Workforce and leadership development
  8. Research, evaluation, knowledge exchange and innovation
The MHiMA project will offer extensive consultation and collaboration in the spirit of improving early intervention, prevention, suicide, community and acute mental health care for Australia's CALD populations.

If you have any references to the previous Multicultural Mental Health Australia (MMHA) project on your website (including links to the MMHA website www.mmha.org.au), please replace those references with the following MHiMA project information.

MHiMA project contact details

Phone: (07) 3167 8306
Email MHiMA at info@mhima.org.au
MHiMA website: www.mhima.org.au
Postal address: PO Box 6623, Upper Mt Gravatt Qld 4122

Page last reviewed: 14 March 2013