AIPA Endorsed Workshops Scheduled for 2010
Mental Health Assessment of Aboriginal Clients
Presented by Dr Tracy Westerman, Managing Director of Indigenous Psychological Services
Workshops will be delivered in Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin & Sydney.
The workshop measures and targets Aboriginal mental health cultural competencies.
Workshop Objectives:
- The determinants of Aboriginal mental health cultural competency-what the research tells us and how to plan for cultural competency
- Cultural differences within Aboriginal culture-can we measure the relevance of culture-the value of this in assessment & intervention
- Practitioner impacts-being ‘culturally compatible' with Aboriginal clients and how this is gauged
- Assessing mental illness in Aboriginal clients in cultural and clinical evidence based frameworks. The difference between: psychosis or being sung/cursed; self-harm or sorry cuts; culture-specific grief reactions (when are spiritual visits of deceased loved one's normal?).
- Pathological grief or culturally appropriate?
- Cultural forms of depression and treatments - mainstream and traditional
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- cultural differences. What cultural factors can be used to decrease the likelihood of PTSD in the current and next generation/s.
- Attachment Disorders - does this hold the solution to addressing intergenerational trauma from forcible removal?
Also included in the workshop:
Accreditation in Westerman Aboriginal Symptom Checklist-Youth aged 13-17 years (WASC-Y): this is the only psychological test developed and validated specifically for Indigenous youth worldwide (Canadian Health Report, 2009).
Aboriginal Mental Health Cultural Competency Profile: the only culturally and scientifically validated test of cultural competence in Australia (CCT: Westerman, 2003, 2009).
For more information and to register for a workshop go to: http://www.indigenouspsychservices.com.au
