Emerging Minds Australia

We're hiring! We're on the hunt for a Project Support Officer and an Administrative Assistant to join our team at our Adelaide office. To find out more and apply, please visit our website: https://bit.ly/3cCIqx5

Connections are central to any engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Our course, 'Our Woven Ways' introduces practice strategies to support practitioners in building the genuine, trust-based relationships required to have culturally safe, connecting conversations with parents about their worries, strengths and hopes for their children. Created in partnership with the Menzies School of Health Research and the Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative (AIMhi), Our Woven Ways encourages non-Indigenous practitioners to challenge the deficit discourse surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parenting and use a trauma-informed, strengths-based approach that focuses on the resources, capacities and resilience of families and communities. Check out our online course today: https://bit.ly/3UURmpx #NAIDOCWeek #NAIDOC2024 #KeepTheFireBurning

This week is NAIDOC Week, a celebration and recognition of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The theme for this year is 'Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud', calling for an amplification of voices, standing tall and inviting all Australians to listen, learn and engage in meaningful dialogue and show value and respect towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. During NAIDOC Week and every week, Emerging Minds is committed to ensuring that the voices of children, families and community members are incorporated into all of our work, with a commitment to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We encourage you to read our fact sheet, 'Listen to our voices and our stories: Including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in decisions that impact them' to learn about how to best provide support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. https://bit.ly/4cTchPD

Culturally responsive practice requires a collaborative and curious approach, seeking to learn from families and drawing on their skills and knowledge. Practitioners can also play an important and influential role in supporting families to respond to experiences of racism. However, communicating across cultures can be complex, and sometimes practitioners get it wrong. They may make an assumption or judgement based on preconceived ideas about a child or family. Once they notice they have misstepped and seek to repair the relationship, they can address the effects of what they have said or done. In this episode, parents Wei and Renee share their personal experiences with racism and its effects on their lives, including the ways they have managed. Additionally, we hear from counsellor Etty Garabelli and family therapist Pshko Marden, who share their key considerations when responding to families’ experiences of racism. Listen to our podcast episode 🎧: https://bit.ly/3RXKTYN

The migration experience for families settling in Australia can be both exciting and challenging. This series of two papers captures how using culturally responsive practice can support children’s mental health and wellbeing when working with families across different cultural backgrounds. Part one outlines how familiarity with, and an understanding of, the four key domains that influence the mental health of children in culturally diverse communities provides a foundation for culturally responsive practice. It also encourages unconscious bias awareness, and the value of engaging cultural brokers and interpreters to avoid misunderstandings that can undermine families’ trust in services. Part two discusses the importance of moving practice beyond understandings of culture to acknowledge the unique experiences of each family. It explains how practitioners can learn much about the needs of children and families through cultural curiosity, and tailor service approaches to meet their needs. Check out our papers today: https://bit.ly/3RTfXJh

No individual practitioner can be a specialist in every issue a child may be experiencing. So instead of providing ‘expert’ advice, family and relationship practitioners have focused on developing robust conversational maps to help them understand the many contexts and issues that influence children’s mental health concerns. These maps assist children and families to describe the context of their problems, as well as the active steps they’ve taken to overcome the effects of these problems on their lives. This practice paper examines five practice perspective shifts to support these conversational maps. These shifts are often utilised by family and relationship practitioners who want to engage with children about every aspect of their lives. Using common practice examples (childhood trauma, bullying and parental separation), the paper explores how the practice shifts were developed and how practitioners employ generic skills to support children to tell their stories. https://bit.ly/3XD8IZp

Check out the latest in child mental health research. Highlights include: - exploring bonding and attachment in Aboriginal families - school refusal behaviour in children and adolescents - social media use and adolescents’ mental health and wellbeing - school-based, screen-and-treat strategy for children experiencing PTSD following disasters - life course predictors of child emotional distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://bit.ly/4cE7RMm

While we might be specialists in developing online resources for professionals and families across Australia, there’s nothing quite like being in the same room as your colleagues! Last week, the whole Emerging Minds team connected face-to-face in Glenelg, South Australia, with staff travelling from the top end and east coast to meet on Kaurna land. It was a wonderful opportunity to collaborate, strategise and plan for the coming years. We look forward to sharing the outcomes with you!

Sleep is an important part of children’s mental health and wellbeing, growth and development. Children’s sleep health is influenced by various individual, social and environmental factors. Increased knowledge and understanding of the importance of sleep health, along with the factors that impact sleep health for children and families, can help support and promote good sleep behaviours and habits. This can ultimately lead to better child mental health and wellbeing. This new short article describes what sleep health and sleep inequities are and outlines the determinants of sleep inequities. It also provides considerations for how practitioners can encourage good sleep health among children and their families. https://bit.ly/3L2oCoP

At Emerging Minds, we’ve been talking with families about what they need to navigate the ups and downs of daily life as well as what has helped them move through difficult times. In response to these conversations, we've released a new series of resources for you to share with the families in your care. Designed for parents, these resources aim to strengthen families’ knowledge and confidence in talking about children’s mental health with practitioners and educators by offering a shared language and understanding of key child mental health concepts. The collection of resources offers accessible and practical information about what children’s mental health is, what shapes it, how to support it and what to look out for if a child might need some extra support. To assist with launching this series, Emerging Minds Director, Brad Morgan, and Emerging Minds Manager, Digital Health, Ben Rogers, discussed what everyone needs to know about child mental health with host Alicia Ranford in this episode of the Emerging Minds Families podcast. Listen to our podcast episode 🎧: https://bit.ly/3xvBjVV