The Word Health Organization estimates that over 50 per cent of migrants worldwide have a mental health problem, ranging from chronic mental disorders to trauma and stress.
The migration impact itself can have a negative impact on a person's mental health and wellbeing. Migration often means leaving behind family, friends and established networks. On arrival in a new country, some migrants experience culture shock', which can impact significantly on their mental health.
A person's cultural background can also affect how they label and communicate distress, explain the causes of their problems, perceive mental health services, and utilise and respond to treatment. Mental illness is stigmatised in many cultures, forcing people to live in denial or preventing them from seeking help as often as they require it. When they do seek help, they face barriers including language, knowledge of available services, a lack of culturally appropriate services, and a lack of in-language materials.
This results in people of culturally diverse backgrounds with a mental illness being over-represented in the forensic population, accessing specialist mental health services through the emergency department and at the crisis stage of their condition, unnecessarily jeopardising or delaying their recovery prospects.
There are many important questions for mental health service providers, including:
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Is it important to know the prevalence of specific mental illnesses and disorders in particular ethnic, gender and population groups?
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Do people from CALD backgrounds with a mental illness have the same level of access to mental health services as other Australians?
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Is the Australian mental health workforce culturally competent and capable of adequately meeting the needs of CALD clients and their families?
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Is the level of funding for multicultural mental health services adequate for the range and size of the mental health needs of CALD populations?
Diversity in Health 2010 will support a dynamic discussion around these issues, involving mental health service providers, state and federal government agencies, ethno-specific and multicultural community organisations, and carers and consumers of all backgrounds.
Conference content
Plenary: Tuesday 8 June
Multicultural mental health
Paper presentations
Community mental health services (7 June)
Communicating mental health and mental illness (7 June)
The multicultural mental health landscape (8 June)
Mental health: public health (8 June)
Reducing the stigma of mental illness (8 June)
International perspectives on mental health services (9 June)
Mental health: population groups (9 June)
Innovation in mental health services (9 June)
Mental health research (9 June)
Carer and consumer perspectives on mental health (9 June)
Sponsor
The Mental Health stream of Diversity in Health is brought to you by Multicultural Mental Health Australia with funds provided by the Department of Health and Ageing.