Cultural Competence Workshops

About The Cultural Competence Workshops

The Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association has developed a 2-day workshop which aims to provide the non-Indigenous mental health workforce with the cultural competence (skills, knowledge and attitudes) required to apply the National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce within a social and emotional wellbeing framework when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

Each workshop is delivered by two Aboriginal / Torres Strait Islander psychologists.

The workshops are practice focused, with small group learning exercises, problem-based learning strategies and facilitated group discussions. A strength-based approach is promoted throughout the workshop.

AIPA's workshop is mental health specific and has been developed for the mental health workforce.  It is the only workshop in Australia to simultaneously address the three national goals to:

i)  Deliver cultural competence training for the five professions identified as constituting the mental health     workforce:  psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, mental health nurses and occupational therapists;

ii)  Increase the safety and quality of mental health care provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by applying the benchmarks for safety, accessibility and quality developed by the National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce (National Mental Health Education and Training AdvisoryGroup, 2002);

iii) Deliver mental health care within the Indigenous framework of social and emotional wellbeing advocated in the Ways Forward Report and the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Framework 2004 - 2009 (Swan & Raphael, 1995; Social HealthReference Group, 2004).

Feedback from participants

To date, eight workshops have been delivered to 118 participants.  Workshops are multidisciplinary in nature and have included psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health nurses, social workers and occupational therapists.  Each workshop was evaluated:  96% of participants gave an overall rating of either excellent (60%) or very good (36%).

Being faciliated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpsychologists was identified as a major strength of the workshops.  Participants also valued:

• The interactive nature of the workshop;

• The knowledge that underpinned the workshop;

• The high quality resources provided;

The relaxed, open and respectful environment created duringworkshops. 

Independent Evaluation

An independent evaluation of the workshop was conducted by Dr Roz Walker (Telethon Institute For Child Health Research and editor of Working Together: Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice), who found:

‘The evaluation findings confirm that the AIPA workshops ─ which are underpinned by adult learning principles, an evidence based theory of transformative pedagogy and the incorporation of Indigenous content and values within curriculum materials─ have been able to successfully integrate cultural competence as a crucial component of effective professional practice' (2010, p12).

When participants in the evaluation sample were asked to reflect on the workshop outcomes, 100% agreed or strongly agreed that they had:

• Greater confidence in working with clients and greater understanding of the historical impact on the contemporary situation;

• A greater appreciation of how to apply the social and emotional wellbeing framework in their work with clients;

• A greater commitment to and appreciation of the National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce;

• Increased skills and knowledge to apply in their practice (Walker, 2010, p61).