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Integrating Transcultural Issues into Youth Services and Capacity Building
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The aim of this project is to ensure that the needs of young people from CALD backgrounds and their families form an integral part of youth programs and school curriculum. TMHC is involved in a range of initiatives that address this challenge by building partnerships and assisting with resource and infrastructure developments outside the health sector.
These include:
School-Link Managing Depression Training Module
This collaborative initiative between NSW Health and the Department of Education and Training links schools with adolescent mental health services by building improved referral mechanisms and the development of resources.
As part of this initiative TMHC developed a school staff training resource called ‘Depression in young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds’. The resource includes a facilitator’s manual, participant handouts and handbook, demographic data and a video case vignette.
The resource is used by School Link trainers from the NSW Institute of Psychiatry. The School Link program is a collaboration between child and adolescent mental health services and schools to improve the earlier identification and treatment for children and adolescents with mental health problems.
For more information about School Link click HERE.
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Supporting Capacity Building
Some of the capacity building projects supported by TMHC include:
Posters from the Pacific
This project explored health risks for Pacific Islander young people through art. The creation of posters was seen as both a culturally appropriate medium for exploring issues and an effective therapeutic tool.
Youth Health Forums
TMHC is a member of the Youth Health Forums Organising Committee (NSW Centre for Adolescent Health) and contributes to the ongoing planning and evaluation of Youth Health Forums. These forums are a series of community health education seminars for hospital and community based workers as well as young people and their families. The forums provide participants with the opportunity to update knowledge and skills, to network and exchange information.
Lifeline Youth Suicide Management Project
As a partner in this project TMHC assisted in developing and promoting more effective links between health services and community based organisations in Western Sydney. The project aimed to enable these organisations to better respond to the needs of CALD young people with complex mental health or substance abuse problems.
Review of Reach Out! Inspire Foundation’s Fact Sheets and Website
TMHC developed a variety of resources for this project. These included fact sheets about intergenerational and cultural conflict, torture and trauma and leaving home. TMHC also provided advice on enhancing the cultural sensitivity of the Reach Out website.
Transcend
The Transcultural Youth Mental Health Network (TransCEND) is a forum for information sharing, networking and discussion. The network coordinates forums to update knowledge in the area of CALD youth mental health issues.
For more information on these or any of our projects, contact our Youth Project Officer
Email Mental Health Project Officer
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Last Updated 02 Jul 2009
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