Training and Professional Development

Upcoming professional development opportunities

View upcoming professional development and training for 2024.

Find out more

Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House): Practice and Sector Development

With recognised expertise in torture and trauma informed care, Foundation House provides professional and organisational development to individuals and organisations involved in service delivery to people of refugee backgrounds. Courses include an introduction to the refugee and asylum seeker experience, incidental counselling and trauma focused counselling.

Visit

Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health (CEH)

With a specialisation in language services, cultural competence and health literacy, CEH’s training focuses on improving organisational and individual practice relating to working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse clients in service delivery. CEH also offers e-learning and free webinars on a range of topics.

Visit

Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY)

CMY delivers cross-cultural professional development and training programs that focus on working with migrant and refugee young people. CMY training is informed by cross cultural practice, cultural competency frameworks, multicultural and diversity policies, human rights legislation, youth work theories, and principles and current good practice in migrant, refugee and newly arrived youth work. CMY training offers practical strategies for project development and implementation.

Visit

enliven Victoria

enliven Victoria offers workshops on health literacy and plain languages, as well as resources developed for CALD communities by its networks of Bicultural Workers.

Visit

Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH)

VTMH offers a variety of mental health and cultural diversity seminars, forums and state-wide events for people with an interest in mental health and cultural diversity and/or who are working in various roles across publicly funded mental health, community, educational and social services.

Visit

Sexual Health Victoria

Sexual Health Victoria offers a range of certificate and non-certificate courses around reproductive and sexual health.

Visit

The Letter Says I May or May Not Be Eligible… It Is a Big Doubt and Frustrating:’ A Qualitative Study on Barriers and Facilitators to Children’s Oral Healthcare From the Perspective of Karen Refugee Parents in Victoria Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy (Balla and Takadamadla, 2024)

Category: Dental Oral Health

Abstract: Australia has a longstanding tradition of resettling refugees and individuals in humanitarian need. Among these, the Karen community from Southeast Asia is rapidly growing in Australia. The absence of data on the barriers they face in accessing dental services is concerning. This study explores the barriers and facilitators Karen refugees encounter when seeking oral healthcare for their children in Australia, aiming to understand their experiences.

Read

Free maternity resources for Health Professionals & Interpreters

Category: Maternal Health

The Stillbirth CRE is pleased to provide a suite of approved stillbirth prevention resources for use in the implementation and promotion of the Safer Baby Bundle. These evidence-based resources have been collaboratively designed for healthcare professionals and interpreters working with pregnant women. The Stillbirth CRE has partnered with the leading professional colleges and research institutions across Australia to develop these resources.

Visit

Partnering with families of refugee & migrant backgrounds

Category: Maternal Health

This course builds upon the established Safer Baby Bundle learning course to provide additional support to health professionals working with women and families of refugee and migrant backgrounds during pregnancy.

Visit

Orygen ‘Trauma-informed care webinar’ Refugee Access Project.

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

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

 Refugee Research Online

Refugee Research Online provides a platform for academic and non-academic research and comment on issues surrounding people seeking asylum and refugees.

Visit

The Migration, Statelessness and Refugee Studies PhD Program

This program is delivered by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute at the University of Melbourne. The Program is a supplementary learning opportunity to enrich your graduate research experience. The program offers an opportunity to share your research with other disciplines and expand your peer network.

Visit

The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute: Refugee and Migrant Health

The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute research the health and wellbeing of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Find out more about their current programs and projects.

Visit

Kaldor Centre

The Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney is the world's leading research centre dedicated to the study of international refugee law. Founded in October 2013, the Kaldor Centre undertakes rigorous research on the most pressing displacement issues in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and around the world, and contributes to public policy by promoting legal, sustainable and humane solutions to forced migration.

Visit

Cultural Competence in Australia: A Guide

Developed by the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia, the guide explores the content, delivery format, duration and price of such training in Australia. The guide outlines what good cultural competence training looks like (p.15) and lists training providers in Appendix 5.

Visit

Practice Coaching—Free E-Learning for General Practice

Refugee & asylum seeker health: Essentials for general practice.

Visit

The Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide

The Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide can be used by doctors, nurses and other primary care providers to inform on-arrival and ongoing health care for people from refugee backgrounds, including people seeking asylum.

Visit

Trends and disparities in perinatal health outcomes among women from refugee backgrounds in Victoria, Australia: A population-based study (Yeshitila and Gold, 2024)

Category: Maternal Health

Women from refugee backgrounds generally experience poorer pregnancy-related outcomes compared to host populations. The article examines the trend and disparities in adverse perinatal outcomes among women of refugee background using population-based data from 2003 to 2017.

Read

The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Hazara Refugees in Australia: A Scoping Review (Sultani et al., 2025)

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

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

The Social Determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

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

Chronic health conditions among culturally and linguistically diverse Australians, 2021

People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are identified as a priority population in a number of key Australian Government health strategies. This web report is part of a program of work on the health status of CALD people in Australia and presents data on the prevalence of chronic conditions reported by CALD Australians in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 Census of Population and Housing.

Visit