By Dr Bibiana Chan
Facilitating a ‘Webinar‘ for the first time.
The first Harmony Day was launched in 1999 by the then NSW. This was an initiative in respond to Pauline Hanson’s 1996 maiden speech at Parliament describing how Australia being ‘swamped’ by Asians. According to the 2016 Census, nearly half (49 per cent) of Australians were born overseas or have at least one parent who was. Mandarin came first as the most spoken language other than English. Eighty-five per cent of Australians agree multiculturalism has been good for Australia (check out the Australian Bureau of Statistics website for more details).
I wear several hats today. I have lived experience of Clinical Depression, I’m also a mental health researcher since 2000. I am now a mental health service provider through a Not-for -profit Social Enterprise – Community Flower Studio.
I chose these gigantic waves as the imagery for barriers for accessing mental health services for 3 reasons –
- They are huge and powerful, and created the fear in you to not even try to access services.
- Waves come one after another – when you think you have jumped through a barrier, another one is waiting for you.
- In order to overcome the fear and not get tired by the frequent occurrence, the best way is to RIDE ON TOP OF THE WAVES! Take on the challenges and turn the experience into part of the recovery journey!
I will share with you some of the common barriers faced by CALD communities when accessing mental health services in the next slide. I’m sure you all know too well or experienced them when trying to access mental health services. Before I do that, I want to illustrate with some concrete examples the not so obvious ‘systemic barriers’.
I mentioned right at the beginning of my own clinical depression, it was officially diagnosed in 1998. I was a very good patient, take all my meds and do the right thing. When I got back on my feet, I attended the CALD support group at the Transcultural Mental Health Centre. This was the first step of my journey to Recovery. I was hungry for cultural knowledge about why I didn’t seek professional help earlier, why I was so ashamed of my mental illness. I published a Master thesis entitled ‘Cross-cultural Issues in Clinical Depression’. My conclusion is “Hey, psychiatrists, you have to SHARE your power with the patients and LISTEN to their voices. They are the most qualified people to describe what happened to them and how their emotional state affected their daily lives. This was my first declaration of ‘CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT’ in 2002! Let’s ride on top of the wave to break down barriers. In 2007, I handed in my PhD thesis, this time I wrote about ‘Depression through the Chinese Eyes – a window into Multicultural Mental Health Services.” I was very enthusiastic, quit my research job to jump into a newly funded Federal project ‘Multicultural Mental Health Australia (MMHA)’. I hope to work with grassroot organisations to empower fellow consumers. That same year, I organized a presentation by a Professor visiting from USA, and leant about a new ‘RECOVERY’ Model. I was fascinated by this new concept. However, the bureaucratic red tapes of MMHA suffocated me. Each day, I dealt with office politics, hospital politics, State politics and Federal Politics. I estimated 80% of my time was wasted on dealing these unnecessary red tapes. I returned to work in research and published a few more journal articles. Well, 3 more of my MMHA colleagues left within 12 months. These are barriers at a different level. Those who were passionate to make a difference to the mental health service for people from CALD background were disheartened and replaced. However, I did not give up breaking down barriers, I was waiting patiently for the next wave to ride! J In 2010, I was honoured to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship to learn about ‘Peer-led Recovery Oriented Program in North America’. I almost didn’t make it due to a bad relapse. Fast forward a decade later, I now run a Not-for-Profit Social Enterprise ‘Community Flower Studio’. I’ve been telling my former work colleagues who are puzzled why I made such a dramatic career change to become a florist – this is a mental health program in disguise! There is NO STIGMA attached to arranging flowers and creating terrariums
We are here to overcome the barriers to accessing services through community, support and creativity. We help each other find resources and foster a GROWTH Mindset. This is what I meant by riding on top of the waves and make it part of our RECOVERY!