Welcome from the manager

Welcome to our July 2019 e-newsletter! VTMH has had an active and meaningful start to the year.

We are always interested in looking for opportunities to meet the current needs of the mental health sector in these changing times. Some of the first half of 2019 has seen:

·  The appointment of three new experienced staff members:  Education & Service Development Consultants Josie Tremain and Sue Drummond; and Psychiatry Registrar Tahmineh Salehi.

·  Active and consistent participation with the Mental Health Royal Commission to continue supporting the system to become more culturally inclusive and equitable

· Involvement in a number of forums and presentations to influence policy, mental health and community sectors and enhance the mental health, social and emotional wellbeing of diverse communities

· Education and service development supports provided to a range of collaborating organisations, including: training, reflective conversations, transcultural clinical discussions and seminars

The second half of the year will see VTMH host, together with NWMPHN, a Forum called “Doing it differently: Putting ‘community’ at the Centre of mental health practice’ which will be held on Thursday, 1 August at the Hume Global Learning Centre in Broadmeadows.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the stakeholders, state-wide organisations and national organisations that have worked with VTMH to create opportunities in a changing environment.

We wish you all the best for the remainder of 2019.

Adriana Mendoza
Manager, VTMH

People

L-R: Josie Tremain, Sue Drummond and Tahmineh Salehi

We said farewell to our Psychiatry Registrar, Shalinda Kekulawala in January 2019. We wish him all the best on his future endeavours.

Over the last few months we have welcomed new staff to the VTMH team: two wonderful new Education and Service Development Consultants, Josie Tremain and Sue Drummond and
Psychiatry Registrar, Tahmineh Salehi.

Josie took over Adriana Mendoza's previous role in January this year, coming to us from Neami National.

Josie has previously worked in the community mental health sector for over 7 years in both practitioner and leadership roles across various regions in metro Melbourne. 

She is currently completing post-graduate studies in Health and Human Services at the University of Melbourne.

Sue Drummond joined the team in January this year. Sue previously worked in the same role in 2016-2017 and is very happy to be back. Sue has worked in counselling, case work, community development and policy roles within multicultural services that support and advocate for people of refugee background or who are seeking asylum. Alongside this, she has worked as an educator and work placement supervisor in higher education, industry and vocational settings for over 20 years.

Dr. Tahmineh Salehi completed her medical training in Iran before starting her career in psychiatry in Australia. She obtained a Master of Psychological Medicine (MPM) degree from the University of Melbourne in 2016.

Tahmineh has worked in inpatient and outpatient community mental health settings, and is highly interested in transcultural psychiatry, including in clinical work, psychotherapy and research.

Please join us in welcoming these wonderful additions to the VTMH team.

Read more about our staff here

What's new?

Registrations open for VTMH 2019 Forum

Registrations are open for our 2019 Forum 'Doing it differently: ​Putting 'community' at the centre of mental health practice', on Thursday, August 1st at the Hume Global Learning Centre Broadmeadows.

Our program features inspirational key note speakers, innovative programs, panel discussions, Q&A sessions, and live scribing. Hosted by Sally Warhaft, broadcaster and writer, who is based at the Wheeler Centre and a regular ABC commentator. The Forum is being hosted together with North Western Melbourne PHN.

Learn from communities and services who are finding innovative ways to put community at the centre of mental health care. We'll also explore a new framework for engaging diverse communities.

Registrations close 22nd July. For more information or to register, visit our Event page.

Upcoming education & events

For all upcoming events, visit our Events Calendar

• Monthly Seminar Series - Wednesday 17th July
  The family violence Royal Commission and the process of change: Incremental? Fast Tracked? Tick Boxed?

• Workshop - Thursday 5th December
  Approaching work with interpreters in mental health settings (Western Cluster)

• Forum - Thursday 1st August 
  Doing it differently: Putting ‘community’ at the centre of mental health practice

Publications

Recent publications from team members include:

People of immigrant and refugee background sharing experiences of mental health recovery: reflections and recommendations on using digital storytelling

For more, visit our Publications.

Program updates

Exploring collaboration between a Transcultural service and a Community managed mental health service to build organisational cultural responsiveness at TheMHS 2019

In collaboration with Neami National, we're presenting at this year’s The Mental Health Services Conference (TheMHS Conference) in Brisbane on a three-year partnership commenced in 2015 which sought to develop and implement organisation-wide cultural responsiveness strategies to improve outcomes for culturally diverse individuals, families and communities.

The presentation will explore processes and outcomes of the partnership, and highlight the progress that can be made by mental health services to improve cultural responsiveness.

The important role of a state-wide service in helping agencies to develop and implement culturally responsive plans over an extended period will also be demonstrated.

Cultural Safety and Intersectionality in Practice: New workshop pilot

We're developing a new workshop on cultural safety and intersectionality.
We've been exploring intersectionality for some time as part of our introductory workshops to cultural responsiveness.

We know from our consultations with other sectors (Family Violence, LGBTIQ communities, Faith communities, Dual-Diagnosis) there is a strong interest in gaining deeper understanding of both Cultural Safety and Intersectionality. This workshop is an effort to address this learning need, for the sector.

The workshop, in the first instance, will be offered to partner organisations, before we roll this out in 2020 as part of our training program.

Spirituality & Diversity Discussion Group

We've been partnering with Spiritual Health Association to pilot a reflective space for mental health practitioners to explore and discuss the challenges they encounter when spirituality or religion come up in their practice with consumers.

Through six, monthly sessions lasting 90 minutes each, these groups have consisted of participants from various mental health services across Victoria. These reflective discussion groups invite practitioners to share their experiences and insights, and to unpack some of the unknowns surrounding spiritual and religious discussions in mental health settings. They have allowed practitioners to develop a deeper understanding of how to explore conversations with mental health consumers about their diverse spiritual beliefs.

PACFA Conference 23/24 Feb

Dr Radhika Santhanam-Martin from VTMH was one of the invited speakers at the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) annual conference in Sydney this year. The theme for PACFA 2019 was ‘Working with Trauma’. The title of Radhika's paper was: Post-trauma reconstruction with refugee families – is there a role for Institutions?

In her presentation, Radhika explored the role of practitioners in Institutional spaces, i.e., welfare, legal, education and health sectors.  She also explore how practitioners honor and witness each other’s struggles while trying to support refugee families.  In that process, how well do they mirror or model the process of re-building trust and connection between care providers.   

State-wide training

Mental health professionals in DHHS funded programs have been engaging in a range of workshops through our collaboration with the Victorian Mental Health Learning and Development Clusters. We’ve held workshops in Bairnsdale, Dandenong, Ballarat and Box Hill and also presented at discipline-specific forums hosted by the Western Cluster. 

People tell us our workshops change the way they think and enhance their practice.  Participants in 'Cultural Responsiveness: Introduction Principles and Practices' 2019 workshops have valued: ‘new theories and ways of working’, ‘alternative approaches’, 
‘updated research and knowledge’ and 
‘the positive attitude of the presenters around cultural diversity. 

LGBTIQ Intersect 

A resource for community members and practitioners. Explore key concepts, learning modules, and stories of lived experience. Visit the website