Defining mental wellbeing within an Aboriginal male concept

2015 TheMHS Summer Forum Men’s Mental Health: Building a Healthier Future The Northside Conference CentreCrows Nest, NSW19 February 2015,

Dr Mick AdamsResearch FellowIndigenous Social and Cultural Wellbeing, AIATSISAdjunct Professor Queensland University of Technology

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concept of wellbeing

• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concept of wellbeing is associated with being in tune and having connection with the land, sea, trees and air. If something happens to break that connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people find themselves in a difficult situation. The psychological damage becomes to enormous and uncontrollable, too great, to where people feel they have reached a stage where life is not important anymore.

Aboriginal Life Set, mental health and suicide

• Much of the Australian history is associated with the landing of Cook

• Therefore the Life Set of Aboriginal people is told from this period.

• There is no consideration that Aboriginal Life Set has existed for thousands of years, long before Cook landed

• Aboriginal people’s mental health (and suicide) is diagnosed through psychoanalyses of the bio-medical definitions

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The historical, political and social contexts

• The processes of ‘decolonisation’ have undermined the internal values of Aboriginal society

• ‘decolonisation’ to refer to the devastating effects which the removal of direct government controls over Aboriginal affairs

• many of the mainstream social risk factors for mental health simply do not apply to Aboriginal people and their communities

Aboriginal Life Set

• Archaeological evidence demonstrates that Aboriginal people have been present in Australia for at least 50,000 years

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had a complex society, with high levels of self-determination over all aspects of life

• The concept of kinship included non-human entities in the heavens, inclusive of the whole cosmos, all things upon and within the earth and the earth itself

Social and economic determinants of health

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience higher rates of social and emotional well-being problems and some mental disorders than other Australians

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience reduced access to community based mental health care

• Past policy continues to affect subsequent generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

• The imposition of a non-traditional existence had damaging impacts on the health of Aboriginal people, particularly men

Mental Health

• Mental illness is currently defined relies on the psycho-medical model for expression,

• The Western clinical perspective of mental illness is essentially a view that refuses to acknowledge cultural differences due to the scientific nature of psychiatry

• Suicide is an important indicator of social, emotional and psychological well-being which could reflect the underlying determinants of illness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males.

Suicide

• Tatz’s (1999) Aboriginal Suicide is Different is a portrait of life, and of self-destruction, by young Australian Aboriginal men and women. Tatz suggest that in order to comprehend this relatively recent phenomenon which occurs more outside than inside custody (prison), one has to appreciate Australian Aboriginal history — the effects of which contribute more to an understanding of suicide today than to psychological or medical theories about the victim. Australian Aboriginal youth at risk are suffering more from social than from mental disorder.

Males

• The disproportionate burden of ill-health experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly males, is demonstrated across virtually all measures of mortality and morbidity.

• Many of the mental health problems identified in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males are linked to historical factors such as disruption at colonisation, institutionalisation, and separation from natural family.

• The mental health problems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males include misuse of alcohol, violence, destructive behaviours, and the loss of a sense of personal worth.

Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are less likely to have contact with mental health services prior to their admission

• Mental health services has traditionally been laden with difficulty

• A blend of traditional and western systems of mental health intervention may increase Aboriginal people’s comfort and willingness to seek help

Conclusion

• The confusion and frustration of coping with the traumas of grief and loss of traditional values, lands, belief and customs has had, and continues to have, a devastating effect on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males.

• Programs aimed at addressing self-harm, mental disorder and suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities must be done in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people