PSYC1002 Lecture 1.pptx

PSYC1002 – Mental Health Conditions Lesson 1. Introduction to Mental Health Conditions and Professional Practice Tanja Hirvonen – Jaru and Bunuba – Clinical Psychologist Record your attendance at this lecture! Mental Health Conditions – Lec...

PSYC1002 – Mental Health Conditions Lesson 1. Introduction to Mental Health Conditions and Professional Practice Tanja Hirvonen – Jaru and Bunuba – Clinical Psychologist Record your attendance at this lecture! Mental Health Conditions – Lecture 1 (Repeat Lecture) < scan this QR code https://tinyurl.com/mub83ynr +We acknowledge and pay our respects to the sovereign owners of the lands we meet on today, and their Elders and our Elders past and present. + We also wish to acknowledge and respect the continuing culture, strength, and resilience of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. Positionality – recognising my position to place and time. Positionality – recognising my position to place and time. Mental Health in Australia - 1 in 5 Australians aged 16-85 (22% or 4.3 million) experienced a mental health concern, - 17% of Australians experienced an Anxiety Disorder, - 1 in 7 children and adolescents – between 4-17 years of age have experienced a mental illness, - An estimated 24% of First Nations people reported a mental illness, - An estimated 31% of First Nations people reported high or very high psychological distress in past 4 weeks, - People with a different ability (disability) experience higher psychological distress than those without a disability. - (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) Mental Health in Australia - Pandemic - Natural disasters - Financial distress - Ongoing Colonisation Mental Health Services Needs in Australia - Federal Government and State Government allocate funding to support mental health needs in Australia. - There are a number of mental health policies and strategies, - Demand outstrips supply, (not enough mental health services to support need – inclusive of professions, medicare subsidised services, other services such as housing etc.) - The cost to address mental health needs are high, - There is the added difficulty of access, remote, demand and complexity of mental health concerns. Psychology discipline - Psychology in University was lacking in its ability to talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander paradigms of wellbeing. - Some of the concepts would be culturally unsafe, and would not have relevance for some families and communities that I knew of, - It felt as though I was a student, but also a teacher with some of my cohort, and it was an added responsibility as part of my study journey - We would like to acknowledge that most Australians do not learn about Australia’s true history, and that there is scarce information in University settings – therefore we understand and note that people in the room may have varying levels of understandings. What does decolonisation mean? Australia needs to decolonise its mental health system and empower more Indigenous psychologists The APS Apology - 2016 “We, as psychologists, have not always listened carefully enough to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We have not always respected their skills, expertise, world views, and unique wisdom developed over thousands of years. We sincerely and formally apologise for: Our use of diagnostic systems that do not honour cultural belief systems and world views, The inappropriate use of assessment techniques and procedures that have conveyed misleading and inaccurate messages about the abilities and capacities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people…” The APS Apology - 2016 Conducting research that has benefitted the careers of researchers rather than improved the lives of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants Developing and applying treatments that have ignored Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to healing and that have, both implicitly and explicitly, dismissed the importance of culture in understanding and promoting social and emotional wellbeing and Our silence and lack of advocacy on important policy matters such as the policy of forced removal which resulted in the Stolen Generations. The APS Apology - 2016 Listening more and talking less Following more and steering less Advocating more and complying less Including more and ignoring less and Collaborating more and commanding less. What do we need to do? Transformative system change needs to occur Indigenous knowledges are equally heard, taught and valued, Decolonising our education systems, Need to increase numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander psychologists Human Rights & Self Determination “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development. In particular, Indigenous peoples have the right to be actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes affecting them and, as far as possible, to administer such programmes through their own UNDRIP 2007. Australia initially voted against and then institutions” supported in 2009. Indigenous Psychology American Psychological Association Indigenous Taskforce: “Indigenous Psychology is an intellectual movement across the globe, based on the following factors: - A reaction against the colonisation/hegemony of Western psychology, - The need for non-Western cultures to solve their local problems through Indigenous practices and applications, - The need for a non-Western culture to recognize itself in the constructs and practices of psychology, - The need to use Indigenous philosophies and concepts to generate theories of global discourse.” www.indigenouspsych.org Indigenous Psychology - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ right to exercise sovereignty with respect to Indigenous ways of being (ontology), knowing (epistemology), and doing (axiology). - Indigenous Standpoint Theory (IST) seeks to understand how power functions in the construction and representation of knowledge, and how it has privileged or oppressed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. - IST challenges the oppressive hegemony of Western epistemology with the aim to transform power so that Indigenous knowledges are given epistemological equivalence. (Dudgeon & Walker 2016; Moreton-Robinson, 2013; Nakata, 2007) Wellness from an Indigenous Standpoint (Swan & Raphel, 1995)