Closing the mental health gap among youths in the indigenous community.
Originally, indigenous culture wasn’t a topic that I was very familiar with, however, over the last 3 weeks I have learned so much surrounding the discrepancies indigenous people face as a community specifically concerning mental health. I was disheartened to learn of that indigenous youth are being denied access to culturally competent mental health care.
An article written in 2017 discusses the mental health gap among indigenous youths in Australia. Reading how indigenous youths are suffering the same problems concerning access to mental health care made other western countries made me realize just how large this problem is.
This article breaks down the relevance and potential effectiveness of focused psychological strategies as applied under the Access to Allied Psychological Services program in addressing the needs of Indigenous youth. Researchers have highlighted that there is a crucial role for non-indigenous psychologists to play in closing the mental health gap and stress the need for cultural competency when engaging with indigenous youths. When reflecting on this I am not sure I agree. I feel we should begin searching for indigenous psychologists because who better to help these youths than their own kind who are likely to have undergone similar experiences. These youth may even benefit from indigenous non-specialist who may be easier to attain.
Nonetheless, continues to be a huge issue in the field of psychology, I am glad to read an article that highlights the issue; however, this is one of many. The question remains what is being done to address the issue.
I was delighted to read that the government was assisting the indigenous community in Australia to close the mental health gap. Very different from what is said to be ongoing in countries such as Canada for example. The NGO I am collaborating with (UNYA) informed myself and my team how they struggle to attain government funding to support suggesting that the government did not like the idea of indigenous youth being the sole target of the program.
The commonwealth government beginning Better access in 2001 continued to build upon the initiative in 2006. The Better Access initiative seeks to increase community access to mental health professionals and team-based mental health care. As such the initiative seeks to provide Indigenous people with an increased level of access to evidence-based short-term-focused psychological strategies and services that are culturally appropriate, within a primary health care setting. Although I must question how beneficial these strategies are when they are focused on short-term goals. These youths need a plan of action or the long term, something UNYA’S program is working to address. Individuals can attain one on one counseling, group counselling, strengthening and maintaining your mental wellness, education on mental health issues and information on navigating them. Unfortunately, UNYA’s program is currently has limited on funding and so they are unable to achieve their goals to a certain degree.
The article also seeks to examine the relevance and potential effectiveness of focused psychological strategies in addressing the needs of Indigenous youth, and to provide some guidance to non-Indigenous mental health practitioners in working with Indigenous youth.
It is clear that there are both systemic and structural barriers impeding indigenous youths access to metal health services. This group remains highly poor social and emotional well-being is often a precursor to youth suicide, family violence, and substance abuse problems. It is vital that we continue to try and understand the indigenous trauma to better help these youths and work to close the mental health gap. Important to understand indigenous trauma, and the battles they face culturally.
