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Building Bridges for Better Mental Health Support: ActionDignity’s WEAVE: Community Innovation Project

 

“The challenges of accessing mental health services are real for our communities, but together, we are finding solutions.” – A community member who attended a Mental Health Community Conversation Circle.

 

Mental health is an integral part of our well-being; however, for many ethnocultural communities, accessing appropriate and culturally sensitive services is a big challenge. Research shows that immigrants, generally, arrive in Canada with better self-perceived mental health than Canadians, but they report a decline after a period of time in Canada.¹ Research also shows that immigrant, racialized and refugee populations access mental health services less frequently than their Canadian counterparts.²

Barriers of language, cultural appropriateness, and stigmas stand in the way in seeking support. In partnership with Immigrant Services Organizations (ISOs) (The Immigrant Education Society and Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association) and ethnocultural organizations (ECCs) (F.O.C.U.S. on Seniors, Haiti Alberta Sports and Cultural Club, Nepalese Community Society of Calgary, and MissionsPH), ActionDignity’s Community Innovation project, or Community WEAVE, looks to advocate for an inclusive Mental Health system with accessible, culturally appropriate, race-sensitive and trauma-informed services for all racialized communities in Calgary.

 

Starting from the Ground

The seeds of this project were sown from the ground up, rooted in the lived and living experiences of our community members. From the conversation with immigrant serving agencies and ethnocultural communities, we have learned major reasons contributing to (resulting in) the challenges racialized community  members face in accessing mental health services:

• Language barriers: Many services are inadequately translated, making it hard for people to fully express themselves or understand the options regarding treatment.
• Impact of Racial Trauma: Racism and the impact of racial trauma has been another barrier for racialized people to seek help. Moreover, it is often overlooked in the current mental health practices. Racial trauma is not recognized as an important part of the approach to professional services when caring for racialized members.
• Cultural Differences – Cultural disparities and varying values and belief systems can create misunderstandings, affecting how services are perceived and received by clients. Lack of culturally competent practitioners and/or service providers could cause mistrust and difficulty in building rapport.
• Stigma: Mental health issues bear heavy stigma in various communities, especially among men, which makes them feel uncomfortable seeking help.
• Lack of trust: Misunderstandings due to language and cultural barriers breed mistrust between service providers and community members.
• Accessibility: Geographic and financial access presents obstacles for some community members, especially seniors.

 

A Joint Learning Journey

ActionDignity plays a key role in bringing together ISOs and ECCs for collaborative learning. As a convener, we organize capacity-building activities for ECC partners on mental health systems change, Community Conversation Circles, and natural support strategies. We also provide one-on-one meetings, technical support, facilitation, and leadership training to strengthen collaboration between ECCs and ISOs.

(Community Leadership Team Quarterly meeting)

“After receiving training from ActionDignity on conversation circle facilitation and natural support training, we were able to replicate lessons in our community. The conversations opened a safe space for community members to talk about the challenges they are facing and the systemic gaps in accessing culturally sensitive mental health services” said the Project Manager from F.O.C.U.S. on Seniors.

(Natural support training with Ethnocultural Community Organizations)

The project allows the ECCs to serve as a bridge for the ISOs and the communities through Community Conversation Circles and the Community Engagement Initiative. “We want to enable the ethnocultural leaders to support their communities more effectively with resources and tools,” said Sarah, the project coordinator.

 

Strengthening Partnership for Systems Change

Through collaborative work, community action plans have been implemented to explore systems change in the long run. This includes:

• Disrupting Stigma: 8 Community Conversation Circles explored community, family, & individual pressures around mental health stigma & create a safe space for participants to share their stories fostered connections, increased disclosure, reduced anxiety, encouraged help-seeking behaviors.
• ECCs Sharing Lived Experiences of Racial Trauma: ECCs engaged with ISOs, sharing ongoing racial trauma & barriers to mental health services. These exchanges help ISOs adapt their programs to be more accessible, equitable, culturally appropriate, & anti-racist.
• Influencing Practices on Trauma-informed Care. ActionDignity ongoing advocacy efforts resulted in Trauma-informed Care Collaborative (TICC) incorporating racial trauma into their TIC toolkit, which is being adopted by its 36 mainstream & service-providing agency members.
• Advocating for recognition of natural support: informal natural support within ECC communities offers culturally sensitive & community-specific support but was often overlooked in formal services. ECCs engaged with ISOs to advocate jointly for adoption of natural support in their service design & advance policies that recognize natural support in the array of services within the settlement systems & integrate this support into mental health practices.

(Panel discussion with immigrant service providers and ethnocultural community organizations at knowledge mobilization event)

Our commitment to ongoing advocacy for racial trauma-informed services and continuing capacity building for ECCs remains steadfast. We will continue to work towards improving relationships between the ethnocultural communities and ISOs-working collaboratively to make the mental health service landscape more inclusive and accessible.

Moving forward, we invite you to join us on our ongoing journey to develop connected, healthier, stronger communities.

 

Reference

Newbold, K. B. (2005). Self-rated health within the Canadian immigrant population: Risk and the healthy immigrant effect. Social Science and Medicine, 60, 1359-1370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.06.0482

Morrow, M., Bryson, S., Lal, R., Hoong, P., Jiang, C., Jordan, S., Patel, N. B, & Guruge, S. (2020). Intersectionality as an analytic framework for understanding the experiences of mental health stigma among racialized men. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 18(5), 1304–1317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469- 019-00140-y

 

 

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