[Commpsych] FW: Dudgeon Walker et al Effective Strategies to Srengthen Aboriginal mental health and wellbeing

[Heather Gridley]

Dear all,
Please find below information on yesterday’s release of Pat Dudgeon et al’s excellent issues paper ‘Effective Strategies to Strengthen Aboriginal Mental Health and Wellbeing’ - very timely


Heather Gridley

Honorary Fellow

College of Arts

Victoria University

Melbourne, Australia



E: heather.gridley at vu.edu.au<mailto:heather.gridley at vu.edu.au>

Ph: +61 419113731



From: Roz Walker <Roz.Walker at telethonkids.org.au<mailto:Roz.Walker at telethonkids.org.au>>
Date: Thursday, 6 November 2014 7:51 AM
Subject: FW: Dudgeon Walker et al Effective Strategies to Srengthen Aboriginal mental health and wellbeing

Dear all – Please see the brief statement prepared by Clair, Carrington and I which provides a short synopsis of the Paper. Please feel free to circulate to your colleagues and networks.
A Closing the Gap Clearinghouse Issues Paper published today highlights the necessary factors for making positive and sustainable changes to Aboriginal people’s mental health and wellbeing.  It provides details of interventions that work, and features important insights into how policies, program and service directions should be conceptualised, developed, delivered, measured and evaluated.
The authors (Dudgeon, Walker, Scrine, Shepherd, Calma & Ring) argue that the failureto ‘join the dots’  has resulted in an inadequate response in policy and service planning to the many causes of poor mental health and wellbeing among Aboriginal people. They suggest Aboriginal people’s traditions, values and health belief systems are poorly understood and seldom taken into account in policy and program development and implementation. A silo mentality and a tendency to perceive and address mental health problems in individualistic rather than holistic terms also persists resulting in limited regard for family or community contexts. There is also a strong focus on formulating policy and programs around risk and protective factors linked to a set of measurable outcomes that seldom take account of the broad range of interconnected factors contributing to the mental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people.  A ‘one size fits all’ approach, insufficient and ad hoc funding, lack of skilled staff, multiple and burdensome accountability requirements and expectations of long-term outcomes being achieved within short timeframes contribute to the history of limited program ‘success’ in Aboriginal mental health and wellbeing.

The paper also offers important evidence of a range of programs and services that are proving effective. Importantly, the authors identify the critical factor among the most effective programs and services being the extent of their alignment to a set of nine guiding principles for best practice. These principles, originally set out in the National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander Peoples’ Mental Health and Social and Emotional Well Being 2004–2009, emphasise the necessity of Aboriginal-led, family focused, culturally responsive and holistic approaches. They reiterate the importance of self-determination and community governance, reconnection and community life, and restoration and community resilience as key program components and outcomes. The principles also reaffirm the importance of working in partnership with the community-controlled sector and facilitating Aboriginal people’s fundamental right to determine the types of services they receive. Finally, they highlight the necessity of recognising the profound effects of colonisation as the starting point for addressing Aboriginal people’s pervasive grief and loss, transgenerational trauma, and ongoing stress and dislocation.

Ultimately, the Issues Paper systematically confirms what many Aboriginal people have been saying for decades, that is, that interventions are most effective when they are based on holistic concepts of health, mental health and social and emotional wellbeing, enhance self-determination and control through strong community leadership and governance, and foster connectedness to country, culture and identity.

We hope you find the paper useful in your own work. Here is the  http://www.aihw.gov.au/closingthegap/publications/

Best regards
Roz

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