Shifting the Narrative in Mental Health and Wellbeing: Reflections on Victoria’s Wellbeing Promotion Symposium

David Reid
Senior Consultant Associate

“None of us can do it alone”

– Monica Kelly (State Wellbeing Promotion Advisor and Executive Director Wellbeing Promotion Office)

This simple yet powerful remark, delivered during the opening of Victoria’s Wellbeing Promotion Symposium on Friday 29th November (which I was honoured to attend alongside Kerry, who was emceeing the event), has resonated with me over the past few days. It captured the various moods of the attendees – despondency about the worsening trends in mental ill-health and wellbeing due to an increasingly fractious society born from neoliberal forces (“[w]e need a much more compassionate form of capitalism” – Professor Rob Moodie [Professor of Public Health at University of Melbourne]); an acknowledgement of what many already know about mental health and the mental health sector; and hope for a future sector that transcends funding and operational siloes – among others.

The Central Thread: Connection and Collaboration

More importantly, it unspooled a central thread binding the Symposium’s sessions together – that connection and collaboration are key to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for all. This applies, of course, to our inherent relationship with each other and our various spheres (“We are a social species” – Kelly), but also relates to the relationship between individuals and the mental healthcare sector, and the interrelationship between different elements of the sector, private and philanthropic entities, and government departments. Ultimately, there was a palpable call for collaboration and an interrogation of how this will be realised, with Professor Sharon Goldfeld (Director, Centre for Community Child Health) proposing the answer lies in “radical pragmatism” – a balanced approach that exists in the liminal space between realism and experimentation.

The Treaty Era: A Time for Connection

As we progress into the Treaty Era, it is also exciting to note that this connection and collaboration extends to the formal relationship and decision-making power between the State and Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Social and Emotional Wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the importance of connection in promoting positive wellbeing is not new. Foundational to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander conception of social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) is connection with family, community, culture, Country, ancestry, and spirituality. In this way, SEWB is not only about the health of the individual, but also recognises the confluence of social, cultural, and political determinants within and across the community and generations (see, for instance, Gee et al. 2014).

Karabena’s Holistic Approach

This ethos informs the work we do at Karabena. Our recommendations to various clients regularly centre around the need to offer a service that is holistic and integrated in its approach, that takes into account the multitude of social and cultural determinants of health and wellbeing, and ultimately creates opportunities for personal connection between the service-user and the practitioner, service, and system.

Kerry facilitates a panel discussion at the Symposium

The Importance of Connection: Uncle Tony Garvey’s Call to Action

It was pleasing, therefore, to hear this message reverberating throughout the day’s proceedings. Uncle Tony Garvey’s (Wurundjeri Elder) rousing Welcome to Country framed this narrative about the importance of connection – to oneself, to community, to culture, and to Country – and doubled as a call-to-action to support Victoria’s Treaty and Truth-Telling processes in overcoming the intergenerational disconnection and associated trauma of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians.

Jon Kanoa’s Personal Journey and Broader Implications

This was further extrapolated by Jon Kanoa (Deputy Chief Aboriginal Health Adviser – Department of Health) who poignantly shared his own mental health and wellbeing challenges, forced to grapple with his sense of identity and belonging due to his Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal lineage. As he put it, he grew up with “a foot in both camps”, navigating a duality that manifested in racism and lateral violence from both directions.

Continuing, Kanoa drew parallels between his own challenges and the broader experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, exploring the ongoing, destructive impact of colonisation and the insidiousness of systemic racism – “walking into mainstream services can feel like being targeted”. Despite this, Kanoa’s message overall, to me, was one of hope. In the face of historical and contemporary challenges, he spoke to the power of community and wraparound approaches to supporting positive mental health and wellbeing. As a young Aboriginal man growing up in regional Victoria, he recalled the communal, grassroots support he received “[w]hen we were falling, we’d catch each other”.

Moving forward, the test is translating these community-focussed methods to a systemic level. How can this wraparound approach be implemented for all Victorians? After all, as Kanoa astutely reasoned, “[i]f we get this right for Aboriginal people, we’ll get it right for everyone, because it’s about respect”.

Shifting the Narrative: Tim Richardson MP’s Commitment

The Symposium presented a prime opportunity to shift the narrative around mental health and wellbeing. Tim Richardson MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Men’s Behaviour Change, echoed Kanoa’s appeal for respect, emphasising that “Aboriginal self-determination must be at the forefront of our health and wellbeing system”, and reaffirmed the State’s commitment to Treaty and Truth-Telling processes.

Radical Pragmatism: A Path to Real Change

His dedicated focus on early intervention and prevention (“...if all we ever do is trace that end, we will always be in a crisis deficit mindset”) and the power of an integrated approach (“[t]his vital work goes beyond government”) is promising. While using economic analogies to describe the importance of wellbeing may not sit well with some (“wellbeing is a major personal and community asset, contributing to better learning, increased creativity, and greater productivity”), perhaps this is where real change will occur – by sitting in the space of radical pragmatism proposed by Professor Goldfeld.

A Tentative Yet Vital Hope

I could go on about the many powerful messages and provocations shared throughout the day – on moving from transactional to collaborative relationships; pooling resources to minimise duplication in service delivery; co-designing community-led responses; engaging genuinely with community voice.

As the Symposium unfolded, it was clear to me that what all the attendees were really talking about was akin to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander SEWB. And this instilled hope – that the ‘system’ is finally catching up to what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have long known works best.

I must admit, it is a tentative hope, given the difficulties of turning words into wholescale action at a structural level. But, it is important to hold onto this hope. As Professor Patrick McGorry concluded, “[h]ope is a vital therapeutic tool and driver for prevention and systemic change”.

Achieving Progress Through Unified Effort

Ultimately, as Kelly intimated in her opening address, progress cannot be achieved in isolation. It requires a unified effort from all sector representatives – government, private business, and philanthropic. Gauging the atmosphere in the room last Friday, and the general willingness for real solutions to existential societal problems, I firmly believe it is possible.

References:

Gee G., Dudgeon P., Schultz C., Hart A., Kelly K. 2014, ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing’. In: Dudgeon P, Milroy H, Walker R, editors. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd ed. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia; 2014. pp. 55–68.