Reflexivity: a model for teaching and learning cultural responsiveness in mental health
Cultural responsiveness is a term accepted by many as the best descriptor for professionals working with Indigenous clients in cross-cultural situations. This article sets out a guideline and a model of cultural responsiveness that can be adopted by mental health professionals worldwide. This model positions reflexivity at the centre and as the source and force […]
Young, Indigenous, LGBTIQ+: Understanding and Promoting Social and Emotional Wellbeing
The following resource contains journal articles related to a special edition section in the Social Inclusion Journal entitled: Young, Indigenous, LGBTIQ+: Understanding and Promoting Social and Emotional Wellbeing.
Indigenous community psychologies, decolonization, and radical imagination within ecologies of knowledges.
As the American Psychological Association Taskforce on Indigenous Psychology acknowledges, fidelity to the inalienable right to self-determination is the ethical foundation of Indigenous psychology. The task of decolonizing psychology is not only about divesting from Eurocentric paradigms that have controlled and limited Indigenous wellbeing, but producing new paradigms founded on Indigenous knowledges. The Indigenous paradigm […]
That’s just the way he is’: Some implications of Aboriginal mental health beliefs
Recent qualitative research conducted in metropolitan Perth and the Kimberley region of Western Australia has highlighted major gaps in service delivery to Aboriginal clientele suffering depression and suicidal ideation (Vicary, 2002). Seventy Aboriginal people were interviewed about their beliefs and attitudes towards mental health, western psychology and western practitioners, and strategies for improving mental health […]
Engaging Australian Aboriginal youth in mental health services
It is currently estimated that up to 40% of Aboriginal youth (aged 13–17) will experience some form of mental health problem within their lifetime. Of greater concern is the evidence that indicates that Aboriginal youth fail to access mental health services commensurate with this need. This is due, in part, to the characteristically monocultural nature […]
Whole of community suicide prevention forums for Aboriginal Australians
It is well known that Aboriginal Australians are at increased risk of suicide. Contributors to suicide differ for Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations (Westerman, 2003; 2019). This study evaluated whole of community suicide prevention forums conducted across six locations. Attendees were youth (N = 136), service providers (N = 225), and community members (N = 158). The content of […]
Indigenization in clinical and counselling psychology curriculum in Canada: A framework for enhancing Indigenous education
This article considers how to advance Indigenous education in counselling and clinical psychology in Canada, particularly at the intersection of curriculum, programmatic, and systemic shifts in graduate education. This article focuses on the curricular practices that the counselling and clinical psychology field could enact in efforts to advance reconciliation, reduce educational and mental health disparities […]
Indigenous peoples and professional training in psychology in Canada
With the release of the Canadian Psychological Association’s (2018) response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) there has been increased attention on the ways psychology in Canada might better serve the needs of Indigenous communities, in particular in terms of education and professional training. To date, there has been almost no research […]
A question of justice: Critically researching suicide with Indigenous studies of affect, biosociality, and land-based relations
This paper considers how Indigenous studies can inform the evolution of critical research on suicide. Aligned with critiques of mainstream suicidology, these methodological approaches provide a roadmap for structural analysis of complex systems and logics in which the phenomenon of suicide emerges. Moving beyond mere naming of social determinants of suicide and consistent with calls […]
(Re)Claiming Health: The Human Rights of Young LGBTIQ+ Indigenous People in Australia
The human rights of both LGBTIQ+ and Indigenous peoples are far from realized. When conjoined, intersecting identities reveal how racism and queer phobia affect well-being, negating the right to health and resulting in devastating impacts on people’s social, cultural, and emotional well-being. This paper documents the lived experiences of a sample of young gender- and […]
Building Indigenous health workforce capacity and capability through leadership – the Miwatj health leadership model
Aim: In the crowded field of leadership research, Indigenous leadership remains under-researched. This article explores the Leadership Model of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Primary Health Care Organisation providing services to the Yolngu people of remote northern Australia: the Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation (Miwatj). Background: The limited research which does exist on Indigenous leadership points to […]
Collaborative practices and partnerships to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
Griffith University has one of the largest cohorts of Indigenous students, with 815 enrolments to date. The Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and Bachelor of Psychological Science programs attract a high number of students from around the country each year. Of the 295 students enrolled in health-related degrees, 70 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students are […]
Understanding Aboriginal Models of Selfhood: The National Empowerment Project’s Cultural, Social, and Emotional Wellbeing Program in Western Australia
Culturally safe and responsive interventions that acknowledge Aboriginal models of selfhood are needed. Such interventions empower Aboriginal peoples and communities by increasing self-determination over individual and community social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB). In response to this need, the National Empowerment Project developed the Cultural, Social, and Emotional Wellbeing Program (CSEWB). The CSEWB aims to strengthen […]
Indian residential schools in Canada: Persistent impacts on Aboriginal students’ psychological development and functioning.
Indian residential schools (IRSs) in Canada subjected thousands of students to horrific experiences and contributed to serious problems for Aboriginal peoples and Canadian society. A model is proposed that uses existing psychological theory and empirical research to explore the possible impacts of IRS experiences. The model identifies four aspects of student experiences that were a […]
Demonstrating the relationship between culture, on-country activity and positive social outcomes for Indigenous young people
This article provides a discussion of research literature concerned with the efficacy of on-country activity, culture, language, art and performance in supporting positive social outcomes for Indigenous people. It also includes references to a number of case study examples from regional Australia of successful ‘outcomes’ that have emerged from projects drawing upon culture, language and […]
Culture-bound syndromes in Aboriginal Australian populations.
Objective: This paper describes the validation of culture-bound syndromes with Urban (N=34) and Rural (N=31) Aboriginal participants. While culture bound syndromes have long been discussed in the international literature (see Cuellar & Paniagua, 2000), published empirical research with Aboriginal Australian populations remains absent. Critically, the secret nature of Aboriginal cultural practices presents additional research challenges […]
Wings to fly’: a case study of supporting Indigenous student success through a whole-of-university approach
Although there have been repeated calls for empirical evaluations focused on if and how the activities of Indigenous Education Units contribute to Indigenous student success at university, data demonstrating the outcomes of these activities remain scarce. As a first step in addressing this gap, a case study of the Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre is presented which […]
A Manifesto for Decolonising Design
“Getting It Right: Creating Partnerships for Change”: Developing a Framework for Integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges in Australian Social Work Education
This article proposes a theoretical framework for integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges in Australian social work education as a central focus of the Getting it Right: Creating Partnerships for Change project. This article presents analysis from a literature review to suggest ways Australian schools of social work can adapt their curriculum in order […]
A review of community engagement in cancer control studies among Indigenous people of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA
This review aimed to address studies of cancer control in Indigenous populations, with a focus on: (1) the nature and extent of community engagement; and (2) the extent to which community engagement has facilitated successful outcomes. Articles addressing Indigenous cancer control using some degree of community engagement were identified by a search of the following […]
Communicating cancer and its treatment to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients with cancer: a qualitative study
Purpose To investigate the successful strategies of health workers who support and regularly communicate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about cancer and its treatment. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to face or via telephone and audio-recorded with twenty-three health professionals (medical and radiation oncologists, oncology nurses and Aboriginal Health Workers), 5 identifying as […]
Layered spaces: a pedagogy of uncomfortable reflexivity in Indigenous education
University disciplines are grappling with how best to incorporate Indigenous content and frameworks for practice into their teaching to better prepare graduates to work with Indigenous communities. Yet the pedagogical approaches that can best engage students in Indigenous Studies as a field of critical study are still being debated. This article has two aims. The […]
Working at a cultural interface: co-creating Aboriginal health curriculum for health professions
Historical exclusion of Aboriginal people and Aboriginal epistemologies in Australian higher education, including health professions education, has produced generations of healthcare professionals who are ill-equipped and lack confidence to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal communities. This article recounts efforts undertaken at a university in Melbourne to foreground Aboriginal ways of knowing and being through […]
Mental health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia during COVID-19
In May 2020, an independent working party was convened to determine the mental health and well-being needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, in response to COVID-19. Thirty Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and allies worked together in a two-month virtual collaboration process. Here, we provide the working party’s five key […]
The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education
It may be argued that the emerging discourses focusing on the social, emotional, educational, and economic disadvantages identified for Australia’s First Peoples (when compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts) are becoming increasingly dissociated with an understanding of the interplay between historical and current trends in racism. Additionally, and if not somewhat related to this critique, it […]