As the year comes to a close, I’m pleased to share an update on the National Multicultural Mental Health Project, and look to what’s ahead for 2019. 

Since the public announcement of the project in May this year, our focus has been on coming together with lived experience and professional experts from across the mental health and multicultural sectors. Together, we’ve shaped and begun a significant program of work which we’re confident will help us move towards a more equitable mental health system, which reflects and responds well to the needs of Australia’s multicultural population. 

A key focus of our work program is on the redevelopment and ongoing national promotion of the Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia (the Framework), which helps services to evaluate and enhance their cultural responsiveness. We look forward to continuing to reach out to Primary Health Networks, mental health services and interested providers in 2019, and to begin a series of dedicated workshops on the Framework around Australia. 

Next year will also see the redevelopment of the project’s website into an up-to-date knowledge network on multicultural mental health. This will involve mapping what evidence-based resources and tools are currently available, and identifying priorities and resource gaps which need to be addressed. We look forward to launching the project’s new branding and website during 2019. 

Moving forward, the project will continue to have a strong focus on working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities around mental health awareness and stigma reduction, and an additional focus on establishing a data collection and reporting strategy. 

We are delighted to have already seen the project energised and enhanced by the contributions of our CALD Mental Health Consumer and Carer Group and Stakeholder Group. We are also deeply grateful for our ongoing alliance with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) and the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA) in delivering this project. 

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Mental Health Australia and project partners are calling on consumers and carers from multicultural communities to join an advisory group that will be a key source of advice to the National Multicultural Mental Health Project. The project represents a national focus on mental health for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and aims to aims to support service providers to improve cultural responsiveness and accessibility. Click here to find out more and apply.

I have both some encouragement and some disappointment this week regarding the future of the MHiMA Project. 

I’ve recently received a letter from the Minister for Health advising the Australian Government has agreed to continue to support the MHiMA Project beyond December 2016 and will undertake a targeted competitive approach to market some time in 2017 to determine the long term project lead. While it is still unclear at this stage what the future project will look like, I see this as a positive step towards providing long term certainty and investment in multicultural mental health. 

Mental Health Australia has been offered another six month MHiMA Project extension while this process occurs. However, as previously advised, and noting the damage (at least 3) short term MHiMA Project contract extensions have had on the multicultural mental health sector, we will not accept this offer. Current project activities will be completed by 31 December 2016.  Our sincere thanks go to the dedicated NCCCWG who have served the project so passionately to this point, but whose terms will finish with the end of the project. The MHiMA website, including the Framework elements, will be maintained while the process to determine the future project lead is undertaken.

While this iteration of the MHiMA Project will close at the end of the year, Mental Health Australia will continue to do all we can to secure effective long term investment in multicultural mental health. 

As we wrap up of project activities, I’m also pleased to advise we have finally received permission to publicly release the ‘recommendations for future directions report’, which we developed in consultation with the multicultural mental health sector and provided to Government in March 2016. You can read the report and attachments here.