Dear friends and colleagues,   

Welcome to our second newsletter for the year. In this edition, we share exciting news about our redesigned website, invite you to our upcoming webinar, 'What is cultural responsiveness and why is it important for mental health care in multicultural Australia?' and highlight the latest work being done through the CALD Community Engagement Project (CCEP).

This month, we join communities across Australia in celebrating Refugee Week. The 2025 theme, Finding Freedom: Diversity in Community, reflects the profound importance of community in offering safety, belonging and strength to those seeking refuge. It is also a timely reminder of the role that social connection plays in supporting mental health and wellbeing, particularly for people who have experienced displacement, trauma and loss.

The National Suicide Prevention Strategy identifies social inclusion as a key protective factor against suicide. When people feel valued, safe and supported by their communities, they are better equipped to recover, heal and thrive. This is especially important for refugee communities, where rebuilding a sense of identity and connection is often a critical part of the settlement journey.

We know that systems and services play a vital role in creating these conditions. Culturally responsive, inclusive care not only improves mental health and suicide prevention outcomes but helps foster environments where people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds feel understood, respected and supported. At Mental Health Australia, we are committed to working alongside communities and service providers to build that capacity.

We encourage mental health and suicide prevention services to reflect on how they are supporting refugee communities during this time. The Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia is a practical tool that can help services assess and undertake the journey to improve their cultural responsiveness.

Visit the Refugee Week website to learn more, discover events near you, and access resources that celebrate and support refugee communities.

Warm regards,

The Embrace Project team, Mental Health Australia

Get in touch: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Embrace Project Updates

• Register for our upcoming webinar: What is cultural responsiveness and why is it important for mental health care in multicultural Australia?

• Our new website is now live!

• Report on the State of Mental Health in Multicultural Australia 

• CALD Community Engagement Project update

Partner and Sector Announcements

• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 

• National Suicide Prevention Office 

• Findings for the Digital Navigation project

• Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA)

• National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA)

• Resource spotlight – New perinatal mental health checklist

• Service spotlight – Medicare Mental Health Centres

• Service spotlight – Witness to War blog

You are invited to join our upcoming webinar: What is cultural responsiveness and why is it important for mental health care in multicultural Australia?

This free webinar will explore the concept of cultural responsiveness in mental health practice and why it is essential for inclusive and effective mental health care, particularly in an increasingly diverse Australia. It will introduce foundational knowledge, principles and practical strategies for applying cultural responsiveness.

We are pleased to welcome Siri Gunawardana, Manager at the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity & Health (CEH), who will share key principles and practical implications of cultural responsiveness. You’ll also hear from Embrace Lived Experience Group member, Zinab Al Hilaly, who will speak to the importance of cultural responsiveness in delivering safe, effective mental health care.

Date: Monday, 30 June 2025
Time: 1:00-2:00 PM (AEST)

We are excited to announce that our new website is now live and ready for you to explore! We've redesigned the site to make it simpler to navigate, so it's much easier to find the information and resources you need.

We encourage you to visit the website to see what’s new and explore the updated features.

A sneak peak at our fresh, new website.

As part of the Report on the State of Mental Health in Multicultural Australia, Western Sydney University is inviting participants to take part in small group discussions focused on building agreement around best practice principles for providing mental health care to multicultural communities.

Western Sydney University is currently inviting expressions of interest from:

• Community members from multicultural backgrounds with lived experience of engagement or interaction with the mental health system 
• Professionals who work with multicultural communities to provide mental health care and support (e.g. GPs, mental health specialists, bilingual workers, service managers) 
• Other multicultural community stakeholders (e.g., NGO service providers and managers, and community leaders). 

Each discussion will run for approximately 3 hours, with dates and venues to be confirmed. Sessions will take place in thirteen locations across Australia as part of this national initiative.

Your insights can help to shape practical, community-informed recommendations for improving multicultural mental health in Australia. 

You can submit an EOI here or scan the QR code in the flyer below.

Expression of interest flyer

We’re continuing to support communities to learn, talk about and seek care for their mental health through our CALD Community Engagement Project (CCEP).

We’re excited to share the latest resources that have been designed and developed by communities across Australia:

• Women from Eritrean, Burmese and Nepalese backgrounds, worked with Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania (MRC TAS), to create a series of short in-language podcast episodes on mental health and wellbeing.
• In regional NSW, members of the Congolese community partnered with the Albury Wodonga Ethnic Communities Council (AWECC) to co-design videos that address mental health and stigma, a pull-up banner promoting wellness, and a bookmark listing key mental health services and helplines.
• Anglicare collaborated with the Sydney Tamil community to support intergenerational mental health conversations. The project included three short videos tailored for young people, families and women, and seniors, recognising the unique needs and experiences across age groups.

Learn more about the CCEP and access community-developed resources here.

Rural Health Connect provides telehealth psychology sessions to women and families who have been impacted by perinatal loss (such as miscarriage or stillbirth).

This service is bulk-billed or available at low cost and is targeted at multicultural families, migrant and refugee communities, people living in rural and remote Australia, and women under 20 years of age. Interpreters are available upon request.

To learn more about Rural Health Connect’s services, watch this video or visit the website.

In February, the Australian Government and the National Suicide Prevention Office launched the National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025-2035 (the Strategy).

The Strategy has been developed to guide decision-making that will lead to an evidence-based and compassionate suicide prevention system. It offers a point of reflection for everyone with a role to play in preventing suicide on what is currently being done and what needs to be done to prevent suicidal distress, suicide attempts and suicide deaths.

The National Suicide Prevention Office is keen to encourage communities to engage in suicide prevention. Summaries of the Strategy are now available in Arabic, Farsi, Samoan, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Learn more about the Strategy and download the translated summaries here.

To be kept informed of the work of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy and to hear directly about future opportunities to get involved, please register here.

SANE Australia has wrapped up its Digital Navigation project and submitted four key recommendations to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

The recommendations are:

1. A Smarter Search Tool - For everyday people and clinicians. It matches needs to services and works across the whole care journey.
2. A National Directory That Works - A directory that includes all relevant services – and makes information like availability, cost, and eligibility easy to find.
3. Seamless Referrals - Tools that allow services to talk to each other, so help seekers don’t have to repeat their story and can easily book and manage services.
4. Mental Health Connected Care Governance - This connects all parts of the mental health system through mental health representation in the Council for Connected Care.

For more information about the project, visit the project webpage or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The National Multicultural Health and Wellbeing Conference 2025, presented by the Australian Multicultural Health Collaborative and VicHealth, is returning in Melbourne from 11 to 12 November 2025.

With support from VicHealth, the conference will address challenges, review best practices, and explore how to improve access to health and wellbeing services for Australia's culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) population.

Visit the conference website for more information and to register.

The National Multicultural Health and Wellbeing Conference will be held in Naarm, Melbourne on 11 to 12 November 2025.

The Department of Social Services is consulting on draft National Principles for the regulation of Assistance Animals. Assistance animals support the independence and wellbeing of people with disability, as well as provide functional support.  

The National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA) is seeking interest from people with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds to take part in a one-hour focus group. Insights from the focus group will help inform NEDA’s feedback to government. Each participant will receive a $100 gift card.

If you are interested in contributing to NEDA's submission, or require support to express your interest, email Brahmmi Kumarasamy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Have your say on the draft National Principles for the regulation of Assistance Animals.

Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) has released an online mental health checklist translated into 40 languages.

The checklist allows mums, dads, non-birth parents and family to self-assess how they are feeling and offers pathways to support where needed.

Find the checklist on the PANDA website.  

Medicare Mental Health Centres provide a welcoming place where everyone can access free mental health information, services and supports. 

Staff can also help connect you with other services to support you into the future, from health to mental health, and social supports like housing and employment.

All centres will support you to contact TIS when you need it. A TIS translator will interpret your conversation and help you communicate with centre staff.

For more information, visit the website or call 1800 595 212.

“Those who have witnessed war carry burdens that are difficult for most of us to comprehend. They have seen their worlds shattered, their families and communities torn apart. Now that they have found refuge in Australia, the very least we can do is offer a compassionate ear and a pathway towards healing and rebuilding their lives.”

Witness to War is a free, national multilingual hotline for people affected by overseas conflict, delivered by the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS).

Whether it’s providing immediate emotional support, information about relevant services, or connections to other resources, STARTTS staff are available to listen and help.

Read their blog to learn more about their work, call the hotline for free on 1800 845 198 at the times listed below or find more information at the website

The Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project is delivered by Mental Health Australia in partnership with the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) and the National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA). The Project is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.

The Embrace Project is on social media and we would love to connect with you. You can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube - or search for us @EmbraceMultiMH.

For more information visit the Embrace website embracementalhealth.org.au

If you would like further information about the Embrace Project or to discuss how we could support you, please contact us.

02 6285 3100

9-11 Napier Close, Deakin ACT 2600

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.embracementalhealth.org.au