Category: Chapter

Community life and development programs: pathways to healing

This chapter provides an overarching framework for understanding the components of healthy communities through a healing and community life development approach. The chapter explores three major themes covering the nature of the trauma that has occurred over many generations and continues to be experienced in the present. These are: – the extreme sense of powerlessness […]

Aboriginal offender rehabilitation programs

This chapter highlights the ongoing over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the criminal justice system and emphasises an urgent need for the development of appropriate responses to this problem. A key response to this issue is through the provision of culturally secure, relevant and effective rehabilitation programs for Aboriginal people within the […]

Preventing suicide among Aboriginal Australians

This chapter begins with an overview of the recent epidemiological trends in suicide and attempted suicide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal Australians and how this compares with the situation in other post-colonial English speaking nations such as Canada and New Zealand. It then reviews studies exploring the historical and social aetiology of […]

Enhancing wellbeing, empowerment, healing and leadership

This chapter explores the relevance of Aboriginal perspectives of empowerment, healing and leadership, as strategies to address the social inequality and relative powerlessness of Aboriginal people in contemporary society. These Aboriginal-led strategies are key social determinants that influence Aboriginal health, mental health and social and emotional wellbeing. Programs that facilitate Aboriginal understandings of healing, empowerment, […]

Working with behavioural and emotional problems in young people

This chapter outlines specific issues relating to behavioural and emotional problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. It describes the most common disorders and their consequences, and how young Aboriginal people are at higher risk for developing such problems than other young Australians. The chapter also discusses the importance of psychosocial, cultural and […]

The evolving policy context in mental health and wellbeing

This chapter outlines the role of policy in setting directions for, and achieving change in, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB). Key national policies, frameworks and reports addressing mental health and SEWB up until mid 2013 are presented. Historical milestones surrounding key policies together with their effects on […]

Reframing Aboriginal family caregiving

This chapter describes the experiences of caregiving for Aboriginal families living with a serious mental illness. It highlights the disconnection with mental health providers and their lack of knowledge of Aboriginal concepts of caregiving. Indeed, there is limited knowledge of the complexity of caregiving across the mental health sector. This chapter explores Aboriginal caregiving through […]

The Djurruwang Program: Cultural affirmation for effective mental health

This chapter outlines the growth and development of the Djirruwang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health Worker Education and Training Program (The Djirruwang Program) in Australia. The chapter describes what can be achieved when individuals, organisations, health disciplines and Aboriginal communities work in close partnership and learn from each other. We emphasise the importance […]

Social determinants of social and emotional wellbeing

This chapter explores current understandings of the social determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing and its development. We show that the determinants of this wellbeing are multiple, interconnected, and develop and act across the lifecourse from conception to late life. This chapter firstly focuses on the theoretical frameworks linking social […]

Hidden obstacles to reconciliation in Australia: the persistence of stereotypes

The reconciliation movement in Australia aims to build mutually respectful relationships between indigenous and other Australians by eliminating ‘gaps’ in health and well-being, educating about Indigenous history and culture and addressing social disadvantages based on false beliefs and stereotypes. Psychological literature has much to offer to the last aim, with a wealth of research documenting […]

Indigenous and ‘settler’ relationships, episodic and structural violence

In this chapter, the various phases of the occupation and colonisation of Australia will be discussed, with a focus on the direct and structural violence perpetrated against Aboriginal people over more than two centuries. It will be suggested that this history has resulted in a set of formal and institutionalised structures, and individual and collective […]

Community psychology, critical theory, and community development in Indigenous empowerment

In this chapter, we argue that community, liberation and peace psychology and the psychology of oppression share a common concern with issues of social exclusion, social inequality and peacebuilding. This shared concern is reflected in a commitment to developing theories and modes of practice that can address problems of structural violence and that can contribute […]

Changing the lens: Indigenous perspectives on psychological literacy

An essential form of psychological literacy that is required in all psychology courses is an understanding of and ability to work with the many cultural groups that make up a given society. Psychology as a profession is part of a society that is shaped and directed by the history, values, norms and biases that characterise […]

A framework for decolonization intervention: broadening the focus for improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities

Colonization has spread around the world and inexorably affected millions of people over the last few centuries. There have been many scattered intervention strategies to overcome some of the long-term effects of colonization, especially for health, education, and employment. With respect to the inequalities and discriminations that have remained after centuries, however, it is less […]