Welcome from the team & 
Seasons Greetings! 

We take this opportunity to thank you for collaborating with VTMH throughout 2019.

We wish you a happy and relaxing time these holidays.

We're looking forward to working with you again in 2020, at workshops, consultations, forums, and as part of service development partnerships.

The richness you bring to our work is greatly appreciated. 

Program updates

New resources to support work with interpreters

Mental health practitioners now have a new suite of resources to support their work with interpreters. These resources are the outcome of a two-year project that was launched October this year.

Approaching work with interpreters in mental health settings includes a tri-fold booklet, new videos and a practice tips poster. We also documented the work in a Project Report. 

Download a copy of the report and find out how to access all the resources.

Australian Youth Suicide Prevention Summit: Evidence-based multi-stakeholder approaches to youth mental health 13 - 14 November 2019

Silvana Izzo represented VTMH at the  Summit and spoke on 'Culturally safe and responsive services for young people - Accessible and inclusive models of care'.

The session explored how adopting an intersectional approach offers ways to work towards building socially just systems, centred on people's lived experience and their  ecology, and responsive to structural inequity.

New workshop in development:
Cultural Safety and Intersectionality in Practice

We have a new workshop, ‘Cultural safety and intersectionality in practice’. We're using the practices and principles of cultural safety and intersectionality to explore ways to address the systemic factors that affect access to care; language and identity; issues of power and privilege.

We were delighted to run this workshop in October for the first time, with leaders in service development and education based at partner organisations. Their feedback is helping us refine the workshop’s content and structure and we're planning to offer it to the mental health workforce in 2020.

VTMH and the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System

Adriana Mendoza, VTMH Manager, appeared at the Commission on Thursday 18 July 2019, as part of a session that considered how the mental health system engages with, recognises and responds to the needs of diverse communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people; and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

A vox pop and Adriana’s witness statement is available on the Commission website. VTMH also prepared a submission in February regarding the terms of reference. This is available to view on the VTMH website.

Organisational partnership with cohealth 

We've entered into a new two-year partnership with cohealth this year as part of our Partners in Diversity Program.

We're collaborating with cohealth’s Mental Health and Diversity and Inclusion teams, offering education sessions  and service development consultancy to enhance cultural responsiveness and create more inclusive and accessible services. This partnership offers and exciting opportunity for us to involve a community health service as part of our Partners in Diversity Program.

We are looking forward to rolling out the first phase of workforce capacity building initiatives with  mental health teams in early 2020.

Discipline specific forums
We were excited to work with the Western Cluster to present at six discipline-specific forums on themes including intersectionality, cultural safety and working with diverse communities. 

Sessions presented by Naomi Chapman (left) and Sue Drummond for enrolled nurses, carer and peer workers, and psychologists encouraged participants to self-reflect and explore the new 'Power Threat Meaning' approach to understanding distress. Lived experience was central to all content.

Feedback across all the sessions was extremely positive.

'The VTMH presentation was the best part'

'Hearing different theoretical clinical perspectives on trauma VTMH were particularly good'

'Great to have a consumer speak (Naomi)!'

Sessions were also held for other disciplines including social workers, occupational therapists and mental health nurses. 

Community grants evaluation
VTMH completed an evaluation of thirteen projects funded by new Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), managed by Tandem and VMIAC, and implemented by community-based agencies between November 2017 and February 2019.

The overall program was designed to build community capacity by supporting agencies to conduct programs that aimed to improve the mental health of immigrant and refugee background communities. The evaluation reviewed each project and the program as a whole. For more information about the findings, contact Sue McDonough at VTMH.

What's new? 

Education, training and conversations

More than 1100 people across Victoria’s mental health workforce attended more than 35 educational events facilitated  by VTMH in 2019. Events included full day workshops, a forum, reflective practice sessions, and many other presentations. 

Over 330 people came along to monthly Seminar Series sessions this year. We received wonderful feedback on the diverse and interesting topics presented between March and November. Read more about the seminars here.

The VTMH 2020 workshop calendar will feature introductory and advanced sessions, to suit a wide array of interests and learning needs. The Seminar series will begin in March and we're planning a new major form for 2020 as well. 

Register with our mailing list to receive dates and details as they are announced.

VTMH website to get a new look in 2020

We're just about to start work on  updating the VTMH website. 

We're on track for the launch in May 2020 and we'll be looking for people to help us shape and test the redesign.