Our Journey
Kaatadjiny Walbraaniny Danjoo (Learning to Heal Together)
What we did
The Western Australian Office of the Chief Psychiatrist’s Kaatadjiny Walbraaniny Danjoo (Learning to Heal Together) project (2022-2025) aimed to address factors impacting organisations’ capacity to offer safe services so Aboriginal people feel safe accessing mental health services in a way that meaningfully and respectfully responds to their needs.
The aim was to teach and embed a relational approach within the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist (OCP), and the Mental Health Advocacy Service (MHAS). This relational approach is inclusive of the values and principles of mental health services provision for Aboriginal people in WA.
What we learned
There are a range of activities that OCP & MHAS have instigated over the past few years based on their engagement with Aboriginal Elders and young people.
- Yarning circles at two services identified by OCP
- Storying on the first day of induction for new MHAS Advocates
- OCP has more regularly engaged with regional Aboriginal communities
- MHAS plans to engage with Elders and young people in new initiatives
- Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Nathan Gibson (OCP) and Chief Advocate, Dr Sarah Pollock (MHAS) have shown strong leadership by making public statements to increase people’s awareness of the Aboriginal Community’s concerns and calling for change to ensure better mental health services.
Services
The strong relationships the two organisations built with the Aboriginal Elders and young people over two-years has provided a strong foundation to provide better mental health services. It has increased their confidence, competence and capacity to work with Aboriginal clients and partners in a more relational way.lvinar dapibus leo.
Researchers
The research team were impressed by the way the leadership group of these two organisations committed to this Aboriginal-led participatory action research codesign process and how they brought their staff along on this journey.
Policy makers
Meaningfully engaging Aboriginal Elders and young people in working with biddiyas (bosses) and other staff from mental health services is an effective way to create culturally secure services for Aboriginal clients.
“Everyone that attends has shown a care and recognition of the need for change … but it would be good to have this implemented in a practical way. I’d love to be on the journey and be able to help progress that change.” – Young person
“Everyone that attends has shown a care and recognition of the need for change … but it would be good to have this implemented in a practical way. I’d love to be on the journey and be able to help progress that change.” – Young person
“You really need to actually listen and pay attention. It’s not like you’re going to have this textbook and all this knowledge is handed over to you for you to learn. It’s kind of tuning in and picking up on different stories or different gems, and every time I was in a room with the rest of the team, even with the same stories being retold, I would pick up some new kind of learning and integrate that into my own personal development as well as the service.”– Service leader
“Have you mob seen what’s happened here? Have you seen the Aboriginal language map? That’s what’s happened here. We have something in common. Even with the diversity of everyone around the table, we can work as one team.”– Elder
“This is a small instance where we both had a sharing role, usually it’s Elders passing down knowledge and we take it on and learn, so it was a very exciting experience to be able to share knowledge alongside with Elders, as well as learn from them.”– Young person
Project Team
Project leads
- Associate Professor Michael Wright
- Professor Helen Milroy
- Professor Patricia Dudgeon
- Dr Michelle Webb
Project Staff
- Tiana Culbong
- River Starcevich
- Jamie Culbong
- John Fielder
- Tanya Jones
The project was funded by the Western Australian Mental Health Commission. It was approved by the WA Aboriginal Health Ethics Committee (HREC1177) and Curtin University (HRE2022-0517).
Elder Co-Researchers
- Aunty Cheryl Phillips
- Uncle Peter Wilkes
- Aunty Sandra Wilkes
Youth Co-Researchers
- Olivia Smith
- Toby Millar
- Lisa Kickett