Mental Health

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (Foundation House)

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.

Monash Refugee Health and Wellbeing

Monash Health Refugee Health and Wellbeing provides a psychiatry service for adults aged 25 -65 years, presenting with a range of mental health issues, including a history of trauma/torture, depression, anxiety, complex grief and loss.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Adult specialist mental health services (16-64 years)

People seeking asylum and on temporary protection visas are eligible.

Mildura — Sunraysia Community Health Service

General counselling services that provide a supportive and collaborative environment to discuss your concerns.

Shepparton — Primary care connect

Primary Care Connect specialise in counselling and advocacy for migrants of refugee backgrounds or seeking asylum in Australia.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

Emerging Minds

How the experiences and circumstances of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children and families influence child mental health.

Conducting Psychotherapy with an Interpreter

A mental health research agenda for people of refugee background in Australia: a consensus study

Mental health services for clients of refugee backgrounds

Last updated 2012

Universal stories of healing from depression

Beyond Blue

Victorian Health Sector Refugee and Asylum Seeker Service Capacity Tables

Young people from refugee backgrounds talk about their experiences of mental health services

Guide for practitioners

Mental Health of Syrian Conflict Refugees – Transcultural Mental Health Centre

Responding to refugee and asylum seeker mental health — Healthwest

Development and validation of a mental health screening tool for asylum seekers and refugees

Culturally informed ways to support mental health in refugee and asylum seeker children

Pragya Gartoulla and Anagha Joshi, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australia, November 2022

How the experiences and circumstances of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children and families influence child mental health

Anagha Joshi and Pragya Gartoulla, australian institute of family studies, Australia, November 2022

Improving the mental health and wellbeing of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds literature review

Barriers to and facilitators of utilisation of mental health services by young people of refugee backgrounds

Emerging Minds

Culturally informed ways to support mental health in refugee and asylum seeker children