Welcome to the first newsletter of 2025. We hope you find it readable and informative.
For the moment we're aiming to maintain our twice-yearly newsletter schedule, with apologies for the slight lateness of this one. You can expect the next newsletter in early December.
We’re working on a range of projects and programs – we can only fit a few in this edition. We also welcomed Ra Vivek as our Psychiatry Registrar. Already halfway through his time with us, he has used his expertise to contribute to a number of projects and initiatives.
We hope you find the information in this newsletter helpful for your practice as you continue working toward cultural responsiveness as an ongoing commitment.
WEBINAR | Challenging the 'youth crime' narrative – Building support for evidence-based change in a ‘tough on crime’ environment | Wednesday 20 August 2025 | 3-4pm
Presented by staff from Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP), this seminar will explore and investigate pathways to change the narrative around youth crime and address the key drivers as well as intersecting systemic and structural issues that contribute to the over-representation of young people from marginalised backgrounds.
- Where: Online via Zoom
- Cost: Free
- Bookings: Register online via VTMH
Programs and projects
WORKING | VTMH and KCV’s Community Advocate program
The VTMH team has been working alongside Kenya Community Victoria (KCV) on a program to help the community better understand mental health challenges and access mental health services.
CO-DESIGNING | New Lived and Living Experience project
We're working on a new co-designed project that seeks to identify the range of factors that lead to the “invisiblising” of experiences of cultural and racial marginalisation within the Victorian lived and living experience workforce.
GATHERING | VTMH Forum 2025: Practice and research innovations towards culturally responsive systems | 6 November 2025
Save the date! We're holding our biennial forum at the Djerring Flemington Hub. The theme of this year's forum is “Practice and research innovations towards culturally responsive systems” with Indigo Daya and Kathomi Gatwiri as keynote speakers.
Our Transcultural Clinical Discussion Service
Transcultural Clinical Discussions (TCD) are a service that VTMH offers to mental health clinicians across Victoria. This is not an emergency service.
MORE:
Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH)
Address: St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Level 1, Bolte Wing, 14 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Address: St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Level 1, Bolte Wing, 14 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Tel: (03) 9231 3300
VTMH acknowledges it is located on the traditional lands of the Boon Wurrung and Woiwurrung (Wurundjeri) peoples of the Kulin Nation. We know this land has history, custodians and stories spanning tens of thousands of years. We celebrate and recognise the First Peoples’ continuing connection to the land and water, and pay our respects to their Ancestors and Elders, past, present and emerging.
In a spirit of reconciliation, we commit to walking the journey of learning and healing together.