Service Development

The Service Development Program aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of mental health services and to encourage access by people from diverse cultural backgrounds. This involves the establishment of active partnerships between consumers, carers, ethnic communities and mental health service providers for sustained change.

The core functions of the program are to:

• Develop, pilot and evaluate models of service which enhance the quality of mental health services to those from backgrounds culturally and linguistically distinct from the wider Australian community;
• Identify resources, systems and processes to implement such models and to improve work practices;
• Facilitate partnerships between mental health services, ethnic communities, consumers and carers.

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Community

The Community Program aims to improve the work undertaken with consumers, carers and families from different cultural backgrounds by mental health services. This can be achieved by enhancing the partnerships between ethnic communities and mental health services. The VTPU is in a position to facilitate consultation processes identifying priority needs for various ethnic communities and to assist ethnic communities and mental health services to develop appropriate responses to those needs. The Community program also undertakes community education to raise awareness among the ethnic communities of the mental health services available as well as resource development and community development.
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Consumer and Carer Issues

The VTPU has part time Consumer and Carer Advocates who are available to provide their perspective on issues confronting consumers and carers from different cultural backgrounds in the mental health sector. They are available to provide advice to government, policy makers and mental health service providers on how the mental health service system can better serve those it was designed to assist.
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Education and Professional Development

The education of mainstream mental health professionals in transcultural mental health practice as part of undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education programs will improve the capacity to provide responsive and effective services within the general mental health system, where after all most people from cultural minority communities are assessed and treated. Although there are examples of such education programs (e.g. graduate courses in Transcultural Mental Health, University of Melbourne, http://www.cimh.unimelb.edu.au/teaching/) they are not easily accessible by all who require them. The continuing development and widespread delivery of such educational programs is a high priority if equity for cultural minorities is to be achieved.
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Research

The VTPU is recognised within Australia as one of the leading research units investigating transcultural mental health. Key issues investigated in VTPU research include prevalence of mental disorder in CALD communities, cultural constructions of illness and use of traditional treatment, barriers and access to mental health services, and effective, equitable mental health service delivery.

To plan, implement and deliver effective psychiatric services a clear understanding of the mental health needs of all communities is essential. The most important indicator of need is the prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the community. Psychiatric epidemiology research methods are employed to investigate prevalence of disorders in various CALD communities, through surveys and interviews. However, knowledge of community prevalence needs to be complemented by an understanding of barriers to service access by CALD communities. At the community level, medical anthropological research methods are used to investigate factors contributing to high prevalence of disorder and low rates of access to mental health services. Such studies may investigate cultural constructions of illness, and patterns of traditional and mainstream service use. At a mental health service level, investigations are conducted of the structure and operations of existing services to determine how they may be made more responsive to the needs of CALD communities. Interventions are evaluated and integrated with the mental health service’s quality improvement framework. Barriers and disparities in service provision are also identified through secondary analysis of national and state data sets. The goal of the VTPU’s research program is to provide a firm foundation for planning changes in existing services and for planning and implementing new, more appropriate and acceptable services where these are required.

VTPU research is extensively published and cited in peer-reviewed academic journals, as well as being published in the Unit’s own books and reports. The Unit also provides consultation to those undertaking research in transcultural mental health.

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