“I was born in Iran. I am Muslim and come from an Arabic culture background. I speak Persian and Arabic. My culture values family, respect, hospitality, faith, and resilience in the face of hardship. Like many in our community, experiences of migration and displacement and living between cultures have shaped my personality and who I am… Many people don’t know the importance of bicultural workers… I’m one of them and absolutely I faced all of the problems, all of the difficulties that currently they are facing in their life.” – Mona Adnani-Salehi, co-health bicultural worker

“When someone is relying on an interpreter, they may only get 15, 20 minutes if they’re lucky, of talking time [in a 50 minute session]… That’s not equitable care, they need extra time. They’re led to revisit painful memories and at the peak of their emotion they’re told the session is over.” – Shadow Toque, co-health bicultural worker

“Before we came to Australia we had to do a comprehensive [medical] screening to make sure that we’re healthy and fit to come here. So it’s not going to be suddenly okay for us to be unhealthy or unwell, we’re not going to feel safe if we disclose that we’re feeling unwell mentally because we might get deported. Those are the kind of fears that may be preventing people from fully disclosing.” – Shadow Toque, co-health bicultural worker

Presented by cohealth’s Bicultural Program and its Victorian Bicultural Workers Network, Listening Beyond the System: Bicultural Voices on Mental Health is a new podcast in which bicultural workers share their community reflections about mental health, wellbeing, and navigating mainstream services.

Through these conversations, the series explores how culture, migration experiences, language and community connection shape the way people understand distress, healing and recovery. It also provides cross-cultural insights for mental health clinicians, GPs, nurses and other people who support the mental health and wellbeing of refugee communities.

Listening Beyond the System: Bicultural Voices on Mental Health is available wherever you get your podcasts, with new episodes dropping monthly.