There is a gap in culturally responsive suicide prevention in Australia. When the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Lived Experience Group was recently asked about what mainstream suicide prevention organisations and/or services they viewed as more culturally responsive and why, not even one was mentioned, with responses such as I don’t know, none, unsure, haven’t come across any. When sector stakeholders were asked to rank the myriad of workforce issues impacting multicultural mental health and wellbeing in terms of impact and urgency, funding to support culturally competent care was at the top.
With nearly 50% of Australia’s population either born overseas or with one parent born overseas[1], what is the reason for this gap?
This symposium will be facilitated by the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project (the Embrace Project) and a panel of 3 – 5 multicultural lived experience representatives. It will highlight key themes learned to date through the work of the Embrace Suicide Prevention Pilot Project from a lived experience perspective. The audience will leave with a deeper understanding and awareness of the importance of culturally responsive suicide prevention capacity building activities and services, and actionable next steps for suicide prevention stakeholders to begin filling the gap in culturally responsive suicide prevention.
The Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project, run by Mental Health Australia and Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, provides a national focus on mental health and suicide prevention for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. It provides a national platform for service providers and multicultural communities to access resources, services and information in a culturally accessible format.