Resources & Referrals > Health Categories > Mental Health and Wellbeing
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Most adults and children from refugee-like backgrounds have experienced some degree of trauma. This may include forcible displacement, conflict, family separation and significant human rights violations, including torture and physical and sexual violence. Unaccompanied and separated children are recognised as having specific risks and vulnerabilities.
For information about approaches to care for people from a refugee background please see the Refugee Health Guide.
Victoria has several specialist mental health support services for people of refugee background. Please contact services directly for up-to-date information about their service offerings.
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Lifeline
Lifeline is a national charity providing all Australians experiencing emotional distress with access to 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention services. Lifeline can also be accessed by phone at 13 11 14.Visit
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Head to Health
Head to Health is a free confidential service from the Australian Government. It connects you with the help and support you need to keep mentally healthy.Visit
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Headspace
If you or someone you support is between 12-25 years, it is recommended that you contact your local headspace for mental health and wellbeing support. Interpreter services are welcome.Visit
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Parentline
Parentline is a free phone service for parents and carers of children from birth to 18 years old. We offer confidential and anonymous counselling and support on parenting issues.Visit
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MensLine
MensLine Australia is a free telephone and online counselling service offering support for Australian men anywhere, anytime.Visit
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Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals
Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals are a service that supports Victorian adults to get mental health and wellbeing treatment and support closer to home. Support is free of charge, and clients don’t need a referral from a doctor or health professional. Locals are for anyone aged 26 years and over experiencing mental health or wellbeing concerns.Visit
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Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
The ASRC Health Clinic provides people seeking asylum and refugees, who do not have Medicare, access to a free General Practitioner. The Health program also provides access to a pharmacy program and allied health services.Visit
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Royal Children’s Hospital — Immigrant Health Service
Immigrant Health Service provides a comprehensive approach to physical and mental health for children and young people who arrived as refugees or seeking asylum. The service is free of charge for all refugee and asylum seeker children.Visit
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Foundation House (Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture and Trauma): Direct Services
Clients receive a comprehensive range of services including counselling (individual, family and/or group), mental health clinic services, complementary therapies and referral services that are free, confidential and voluntary. We also use professional interpreters as required.Visit
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Monash Refugee Health & Wellbeing
Monash Health’s Refugee Health and Wellbeing service provides comprehensive primary care services and tertiary services including infectious diseases, paediatrics and psychiatry.Visit
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Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub
The Hub welcomes people seeking asylum who do not have a Medicare Card or who have a Medicare Card but receive no income. The Hub’s specialist mental health service provides multi-disciplinary care for clients with mental health needs, including triage, psychiatric assessment and management, therapeutic intervention, counselling, referrals and ongoing support.Visit
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Centre for Migrant and Refugee Health
Centre for Migrant and Refugee Health services offer a wide range of therapeutic options and approaches, which are not time-limited to support individuals, families, parents and carers of migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum. The services are delivered by accredited psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, registered nurses, and occupational therapists using excellent carer choice in the treatment they desire with respect, integrity, and safety.Visit
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CAREinMIND Mental Health Services
Refugees and asylum seekers, who may receive low/no income, are eligible for CAREinMIND’s free short-term psychological counselling services. Note that a Medicare card is not required. This makes the service useful for those asylum seekers who are ineligible for Medicare.Visit
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Shepparton — Primary Care Connect
We specialises in counselling and advocacy for migrants of refugee backgrounds or seeking asylum in Australia. We work within a trauma-informed framework to work together with individuals/families to help reduce trauma symptoms and emotional distress, build coping skills, develop problem-solving strategies and build connections within the community.Visit
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NDIS and Psychosocial Disability
People whose mental health condition is associated with a disability may be eligible for support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). You must, however, be a permanent resident to be eligible for the scheme.Visit
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Child and adolescent mental health services (0-18 years)
The Primary Health Networks (PHNs) fund a range of different low, moderate and high intensity psychosocial support services. For more information, please contact your local PHN.Visit
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Adult specialist mental health services (16-64 years)
People seeking asylum and on temporary protection visas are eligible.Visit
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Mildura — Sunraysia Community Health Service
General counselling services that provide a supportive and collaborative environment to discuss your concerns.Visit
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Geelong — Barwon Child Youth and Family (BCYF)
If you are a refugee or asylum seeker who has experienced torture and other traumatic events in your country of origin, or while fleeing your country, you can access torture and trauma counselling at BCYF.Visit
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Suicide among refugee and humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants
Data presented in this report are drawn from a larger project investigating the health and welfare of Australia’s refugee and humanitarian entrant populations (AIHW 2023a). This larger project was funded by the Department of Home Affairs and involved linking the Settlement Database (Department of Home Affairs 2019) with other datasets available in the Person-level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA); formally known as the Multi Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP) (ABS n.d.). Linking the Settlement Database to the PLIDA enabled the identification and analysis of migrant status for deidentified individuals appearing within other PLIDA datasetsREAD MORE
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Designing mental health services for young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds
A tip sheet for mental health clinicians, counsellors and key workers working with children, young people and families from a refugee or asylum seeking background.Visit
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Working with Children, Young People and Families from a Refugee and Asylum-seeking Background: A Tip Sheet
A tip sheet for mental health clinicians, counsellors and key workers working with children, young people and families from a refugee or asylum seeking background.View Document
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Glossary of terms – Accessing mental health services
This glossary is designed to help you understand the technical terms related to mental health services in Victoria. In particular, it explains the terms used in the ‘Mental health services’ video. It may also help the work of interpreters in this area.Visit
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Interpreting Services for PHN-Commissioned mental health services
As a provider of mental health services funded by a Primary Health Network, your organisation is now able to access interpreting Services funded by the Australian Government through the National Translating and Interpreting Services (TIS National).View Document
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Access to mental health local services in twenty-one languages
Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health and Victorian State Government has developed videos about access to mental health local services in twenty-one languages.Visit
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Factsheets on difference between new mental health locals and existing hubs
Victoria’s mental health and wellbeing system is transforming, with mental health and wellbeing hubs being phased out, and mental health and wellbeing locals established.Visit
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Healthy Mind, Healthy Family, Healthy Community (Arabic)
Healthy Mind, Healthy Family, Healthy Community is a video produced by members of the Syrian and Iraqi Community Advisory Group of the Diverse Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Project. This video is in Arabic.View
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Hope and Life (Dari)
Hope and Life is a video produced by members of the Communities from Afghanistan Advisory Group of the Diverse Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Project. This video is in Dari.View
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Orygen ‘Trauma-informed care webinar’ Refugee Access Project.
This webinar brings you on the journey of creating a new service for the targeted population of newly arrived Iraqi and Syrian refugees aged 0 to 24 years of age living in North West Melbourne and why specialised refugee access services are needed.Visit
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The Transcultural Mental Health Centre (TMHC)
TMHC works with health professionals and communities across New South Wales to support positive mental health for people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.Visit
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Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH)
A directory of bilingual health providers (This has links to search directories that have capacity to search for professionals by language)Visit
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Embrace Multicultural Mental Health
Embrace Multicultural Mental Health (the Embrace Project) is run by Mental Health Australia and provides a national focus on mental health and suicide prevention for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.Visit
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Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IHMA)
Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IHMA) supports people who are receiving, or at risk of receiving, compulsory mental health treatment to make decisions and have as much say as possible about their assessment, treatment and recovery.Visit
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Strength in My Roots
Mental Health Information and resources for multicultural young people. Hear from multicultural young people about their experiences and explore helpful resources to support your mental health.Visit
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Universal stories of healing from depression
Universal Stories of Healing from Depression is an audio-visual resource which has been developed to raise awareness of depression in refugee communities.Visit
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Transcultural Mental Health Centre- Mental Health of Syrian Conflict Refugees
This website brings together information and resources to assist service providers to better understand and meet the mental health needs of refugees from Syria and Iraq.Visit
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The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Hazara Refugees in Australia: A Scoping Review (Sultani et al., 2025)
Abstract Hazara refugees are highly vulnerable to trauma and other mental health challenges due to sustained ethnic and religious persecution. The post-migration difficulties experienced in Australia significantly heighten the risk of exacerbating these outcomes, while also highlighting the importance of identifying the various strengths and strategies that foster wellbeing. We conducted a scoping review to explore the mental health and wellbeing of Hazara refugees in Australia. A systematic database search was conducted across CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. Twenty-one articles met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. Our findings draw attention to the distinct gendered mental health and wellbeing experiences of Hazara refugees. We highlight the emotional and psychological harm caused by visa insecurity and restrictions post-migration, as well as the detrimental impacts of racism and discrimination. We also discuss barriers to accessing support services, and identify key strategies used by Hazara refugees to promote their wellbeing in Australia. Lastly, findings highlight the collective experiences of suffering and growth experienced by Hazara refugees, and the cumulative impacts that all stages of forced migration may have on post-migration outcomes. In doing so, this review provides a critical overview of the mental health and wellbeing experiences of Hazara refugees in Australia and provides important recommendations for researchers and practitioners working with this population.Read
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Community Engagement Framework
A Community Engagement Framework was developed through the Diverse Communities project to establish a model for engaging refugee and asylum seeker background communities into the mental health reforms. It outlines principles, key considerations, and strategies to facilitate meaningful engagement among these communities.View Document
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Our Health, Our Mind: Mental health needs in Muslim migrant and refugee communities
Report by the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights on community members' understanding of mental health and mental health issues, including summary of key findings and recommendations.View document
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The Social Determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations
In this paper we provide a roadmap to address the social determinants that cause mental ill health. Relying as far as possible on high-quality evidence, we first map out the literature that supports a causal link between social determinants and later mental health outcomes.View Document
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Mental deterioration of refugees and asylum seekers with uncertain legal status in Australia: Perceptions and responses of legal representatives
In 2014 Australia introduced a ‘fast track assessment’ (FTA) system of processing refugee claims for asylum seekers who arrived by boat, those found to be refugees were only eligible for temporary residence. Legal professionals play a pivotal role in protecting the rights of asylum seekers and gain unique insight into the impact of the legal system has on clients mental health.Visit
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The mental health effects of changing from insecure to secure visas for refugees
This online longitudinal study investigated whether refugees who transitioned from low visa security (e.g. short-term transient visas) to medium (e.g. temporary protection visas) or high visa (e.g. permanent visas) security showed changes in depression symptoms, social difficulties and immigration-related fears.Visit
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Mental health and Wellbeing Workforce Strategy 2021-2024
The mental health and wellbeing workforce plays a key role in the mental health system reforms. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Strategy 2021-2024 identifies the gaps and the challenges in getting workers skilled up and provides a pathway towards building a workforce to deliver appropriate care.Visit
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Conducting Psychotherapy with an Interpreter
This qualitative study assessed how clinicians prepared and used interpreters during psychotherapeutic sessions and investigated the strategies they used to manage the dynamics of this process.Visit
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A mental health research agenda for people of refugee background in Australia: a consensus study
There is a need to develop a comprehensive and coherent mental health research agenda to guide the development of policy and practice relevant mental health research for children, young people and adult of refugee background.View Document
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Young people from refugee backgrounds talk about their experiences of mental health services
This document suggests how practitioners can contribute to improving the accessibility, quality and effectiveness of services for this population, based on what young people who were refugees said about their experiences of using Australian mental health services.View Document
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Healthwest- Responding to refugee and asylum seeker mental health
In 2016 HealthWest received a small grant to enhance the work of the public mental health service system in the western metropolitan area of Melbourne in responding to refugees and asylum seekers who have a mental illness, or who are at risk of experiencing an episode of acute mental illness.View Document
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Development and validation of a mental health screening tool for asylum seekers and refugees
There is no screening tool for major depressive disorder (MDD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in asylum-seekers or refugees (ASR) that can be readily administered by non-mental health workers. Hence, we aimed to develop a brief, sensitive and rapidly administrable tool for non-mental health workers to screen for MDD and PTSD in ASR.View Document
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Culturally informed ways to support mental health in refugee and asylum seeker children
This resource provides information about culturally informed ways to support the mental health of refugee and asylum seeker children. It aims to support practitioners from a range of mental health, social work and community-sector backgrounds who work with children and families from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.Visit
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How the experiences and circumstances of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children and families influence child mental health
Children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds may have specific experiences which affect their mental health. It is important to use a social determinants lens when exploring the factors that contribute to the mental health of children from CALD backgrounds.Visit
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Improving the mental health and wellbeing of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds: Literature Review
This literature review has been drawn from academic and grey literature available within Australia and internationally. It focusses on good practices that are considered to improve the lives of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds that are experiencing mental ill-health and are being supported in the community, including primary care settings.View Document
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Barriers to and facilitators of utilisation of mental health services by young people of refugee backgrounds
Investigation of barriers to and facilitators of formal help-seeking among children and young people from refugee backgrounds as distinct from factors important for refugee adults and nonrefugees children/youth is important because, in the absence of such research, “policy makers, service planners, and mental health professionals have little option but to draw unreliable inferences from research based on children in the general population or ethnic minority adults”(de Anstiss, et al., 2009).View Document