Tag: Social and Emotional Wellbeing

The third conversation: has anything changed?

The Roundtable brought together Aboriginal community leaders and experts in Indigenous mental health and suicide prevention along with experts, scholars and policy makers to engage in a third conservation about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and suicide prevention with Emeritus Professor Michael Chandler from the University of British Columbia. The Roundtable style enabled […]

The Elders Report into preventing Indigenous self-harm and youth suicide

Interview excerpts of Elders featured in the Report. The Culture Is Life campaign aims to give a platform for Indigenous Elders and community leaders to influence public awareness, policy-making and service provision around Indigenous suicide prevention. One of the initial actions of the Culture Is Life campaign was the development of the’Elders Report on Preventing […]

Principles of practice in mental health assessment with Aboriginal Australians

In this chapter, concepts and history of assessment and testing in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing and mental health are discussed. Importantly, recently revised diagnostic guidelines and the National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce 20131 and their appropriateness for meeting the distinctive needs of Aboriginal people […]

A history of Indigenous psychology

This chapter discusses how the discipline and practice of psychology has been part of the colonising process influencing the mental health of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It outlines events where the discipline of psychology has been supportive of, and responsive to, the Aboriginal mental health movement, heralding the empowerment and inclusion of […]

Addressing individual and community transgenerational trauma

This chapter provides a focus on trauma as cause and effect which, when untreated, can compound within and across generations. The result is physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social distress for individuals and broader social groups. While the experiences and transfer of trauma are not limited to members of specific racial or cultural groups, religions, […]

Trauma-informed services and trauma-specific care for Indigenous Australian children

This report provides comprehensive information on trauma in Indigenous Australian children. It examines the effects of trauma while also providing an overview of recent government initiatives implemented to address the negative consequences of trauma exposure in childhood and adulthood. The report also describes the delivery of trauma-informed services and trauma-specific care. Complementing the information in […]

A reference list for teaching about Indigenous Australians in psychology

The purpose of the list is to compile a reference list for psychology professionals who might be searching for relevant research to cover in their undergraduate courses. The list is partial and doubtless will expand in future updates. Sections include: 1) Scholarly articles 2) Coverage of relevant issues in psychology textbooks; 3) Psychology studies with […]

Traditional Healers of the Central Desert : Ngangkari

Traditional Healers of the Central Desert contains unique stories and imagery and primary source material: the ngangkari speak directly to the reader. Ngangkari are senior Aboriginal people authorised to speak publicly about Anangu (Western Desert language speaking Aboriginal people) culture and practices. It is accurate, authorised information about their work, in their own words. The […]

Developing an exploratory framework linking Australian Aboriginal peoples’ connection to Country and concepts of wellbeing

Aboriginal people across Australia suffer significant health inequalities compared with the non-Indigenous population. Evidence indicates that inroads can be made to reduce these inequalities by better understanding social and cultural determinants of health, applying holistic notions of health and developing less rigid definitions of wellbeing. The following article draws on qualitative research on Victorian Aboriginal […]

Making Tracks: A Trauma-Informed Framework for Supporting Aboriginal Young People Leaving Care

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people leaving out-of-home care are even more likely to experience poor outcomes and with more serious consequences This framework is a trauma and attachment-informed approach embedded in a cultural, ecological and developmental perspective. It aims to help workers recognise and make sense of many of the young people’s behaviours, […]

Key Messages – Making Tracks: Trauma-Informed Practice Guide for Aboriginal Young People Leaving Care

This practice guide highlights key messages arising from the development of a trauma and attachment-informed framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people leaving care. The more detailed framework is described in the Making Tracks: A trauma-informed framework for supporting Aboriginal young people leaving care (Jackson, Waters, Meehan, Hunter & Corlett, 2013). This practice […]

Measures of Indigenous social capital and their relationship with well-being

Objective: To provide the first estimates of a comprehensive measure of social capital for the Indigenous population and to link the indicators to well-being. Design: Observational study-based. Setting: Household survey. Participants: Nationally representative sample of 7823 Indigenous Australians aged 15 years and over who were usual residents of private dwellings. Main outcome measure: Whether or […]

Our healing, our solutions: Volume 3

In May 2010, the Healing Foundation announced its first funding initiative aimed at acknowledging and addressing the pain and hurt caused by colonisation, forced removals and other past government policies. The primary purpose of the healing initiatives was to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous people and communities, focusing on the wellbeing of […]

Challenging hidden assumptions: colonial norms as determinants of Aboriginal mental health

This paper examines how mental health service research and discourse reflect such remnant colonial ideas and, as such, constitute a social determinant of mental health for Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The paper is organized as follows. First, the methods used to gather information are briefly described. A second section looks at what areas research tends […]

Mental health impacts of racial discrimination in Victorian Aboriginal communities: The Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity (LEAD) Experiences of Racism Survey,

We surveyed 755 Aboriginal Australians in four communities across Victoria in 2011. • Aboriginal people were asked about their background, experiences of racism and where they occurred, response strategies and the impact of racism on anxiety, mental distress (measured using the K5 scale for psychological distress) and behaviour and the impact of racism on their […]

Hear our voices: community consultattions for the development of an empowerment, healing and leadership program for Aboriginal people living in the Kimberley, Western Australia. Final Research Report

This research Project was initiated in response to the high number of suicides in the Kimberley, northern Western Australia over more than ten years, which sadly, has only worsened in the past 12 months. Between 1999 and 2006, there were 96 Aboriginal suicide deaths in the Kimberley, an average of one suicide per month over […]

Reducing the health disparities of Indigenous Australians: time to change focus

Background: Indigenous peoples have worse health than non-Indigenous, are over-represented amongst the poor and disadvantaged, have lower life expectancies, and success in improving disparities is limited. To address this, research usually focuses on disadvantaged and marginalised groups, offering only partial understanding of influences underpinning slow progress. Critical analysis is also required of those with the […]

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 […]

Closing the gaps in and through Indigenous health research: guidelines, processes and practices

Research in Aboriginal contexts remains a vexed issue given the ongoing inequities and injustices in Indigenous health. It is widely accepted that good research providing a sound evidence base is critical to closing the gap in Aboriginal health and wellbeing outcomes. However, key contemporary research issues still remain regarding how that research is prioritised, carried […]

Racism, social resources and mental health for Aboriginal people living in Adelaide

Background: This paper examines whether reported experience of racism by Aboriginal people living in Adelaide is negatively associated with mental health, and whether social resources ameliorate the mental health effects of racism. Methods: Face-to-face structured and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 153 Aboriginal people. Data on self-reported experiences of racism (average regularity of racism across […]

The effects of a common in-group prime on intentions to help Indigenous and homeless Australians

The article reports on research designed to test Australian attitudes towards helping impoverished members of the Australian society, in particular, indigenous and homeless people. Australian university students completed a questionnaire to measure their attitudes towards helping homeless and indigenous people under conditions that primed a common Australian identity. The findings showed that priming an inclusive […]