RANZCP homepage
Date
16 October 2024
Organised by
RANZCPDelivery
OnlineWorking in a multicultural and diverse medical workforce enriches our perspectives, enhances our skills, and drives innovation in patient care.
Psychiatrists from First Nations and multicultural communities, and those with international qualifications, play a crucial role in enhancing our ability to meet the mental health needs of all communities including multicultural communities through their unique experiences, skills and perspectives. They also help to highlight the need for mental health services to be culturally safe workplaces, for the benefit of consumers and colleagues alike.
In recognising this diversity, how do we move forward in developing our own cultural competency in our interactions and workplaces day-to-day? What are our gaps in our own understandings, and what’s the pathway towards being an active contributor towards culturally safe clinical care and workplace environments?
In this video you will learn about:
- The extent of diversity in our communities and workplaces, and why multicultural workforces are crucial for services to provide appropriate mental health care in Australia and New Zealand.
- Reflect on engagement both in the workplace and with consumers/carers around self-awareness and contribution to culturally safe clinical care and workplace environments.
- Developing awareness of own biases or prejudices that may be affecting our everyday interactions.
Presenters
Associate Professor Raju Lakshmana
General Adult Psychiatrist, SIMG Director of Training, Victoria
Associate Professor Lakshmana is a General Adult Psychiatrist with special interest in inpatient, perinatal, telehealth, collaborative care, and neurostimulation. He has been in several leadership roles in mental health and has keen interest in service delivery models and consumer participation in mental health.
He works as the Director of Training for the Victorian Specialist International Medical Graduates and as Additional Director of Psychiatry, Goulburn Valley Health. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor with Oceania University of Medicine and a tenured Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry the University of Melbourne.
He is actively involved with postgraduate teaching and has published in scientific journals.
Associate Professor Lakshmana is a General Adult Psychiatrist with special interest in inpatient, perinatal, telehealth, collaborative care, and neurostimulation. He has been in several leadership roles in mental health and has keen interest in service delivery models and consumer participation in mental health.
He works as the Director of Training for the Victorian Specialist International Medical Graduates and as Additional Director of Psychiatry, Goulburn Valley Health. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor with Oceania University of Medicine and a tenured Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry the University of Melbourne.
He is actively involved with postgraduate teaching and has published in scientific journals.
Dr Selamawit Mulholland
General Adult Community Psychiatrist, Broome, Western Australia
Dr Mulholland is a general psychiatrist working with an adult community team in remote WA. She is interested in many aspects of psychiatry, including transcultural, resource-limited, global and First Nations experiences of mental health, and has been fortunate to work with and learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in regional and remote Australia.
Dr Mulholland understands the various barriers to mental health care are based in discrimination, and identifies addressing these barriers as essential to her psychiatric practice.
Dr Mulholland is a general psychiatrist working with an adult community team in remote WA. She is interested in many aspects of psychiatry, including transcultural, resource-limited, global and First Nations experiences of mental health, and has been fortunate to work with and learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in regional and remote Australia.
Dr Mulholland understands the various barriers to mental health care are based in discrimination, and identifies addressing these barriers as essential to her psychiatric practice.
Hamza Vayani
Community member, Racism Awareness Steering Group, Queensland
Hamza Vayani has held several appointments in senior management roles and advisory committees. He is a strong advocate for culturally responsive, clinically safe and accessible healthcare services focussing on people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.
His achievements include establishing a national network of consumers and carers from CALD backgrounds; and publication of an Australian government funded National Mental Health Commission report about the lack of data collection and analysis about access, experience and outcomes to mental health and suicide prevention programmes being inclusive of people of CALD backgrounds.
He holds an MBA Business (Health Services Management).
Hamza Vayani has held several appointments in senior management roles and advisory committees. He is a strong advocate for culturally responsive, clinically safe and accessible healthcare services focussing on people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.
His achievements include establishing a national network of consumers and carers from CALD backgrounds; and publication of an Australian government funded National Mental Health Commission report about the lack of data collection and analysis about access, experience and outcomes to mental health and suicide prevention programmes being inclusive of people of CALD backgrounds.
He holds an MBA Business (Health Services Management).
Dr Laura Hammersley
General Adult Psychiatrist, Christchurch, New Zealand
Ko Mātaatua te waka
Ko Tauranga te moana
Ko Mauao to maunga
Ko Ngāi Te Rangi te iwi
Ko Ngāi Tamawhariua te hapū
Ko Te Rangihourhiri te marae
Ko Laura Hammersley ahau
Dr Hammersley completed her Psychiatry training in January 2023 and has been working as a General Adult Psychiatrist in Christchurch, New Zealand, ever since.
She is proud of her Māori heritage and has a special interest in addressing the inequalities that her people face. For this reason, she finds joy in her work with the East Adult Community Psychiatric Team, whose catchment covers the highest proportion of Māori and those with the lowest socioeconomic status.
In 2024, Dr Hammersley was honoured to be asked to work alongside other Senior Māori staff to provide cultural supervision to the local Registrar group. She was also offered a place on the Racism Awareness Steering Group, which she hopes will aid her in making change at a binational level, rather than simply a local one.
Ko Mātaatua te waka
Ko Tauranga te moana
Ko Mauao to maunga
Ko Ngāi Te Rangi te iwi
Ko Ngāi Tamawhariua te hapū
Ko Te Rangihourhiri te marae
Ko Laura Hammersley ahau
Dr Hammersley completed her Psychiatry training in January 2023 and has been working as a General Adult Psychiatrist in Christchurch, New Zealand, ever since.
She is proud of her Māori heritage and has a special interest in addressing the inequalities that her people face. For this reason, she finds joy in her work with the East Adult Community Psychiatric Team, whose catchment covers the highest proportion of Māori and those with the lowest socioeconomic status.
In 2024, Dr Hammersley was honoured to be asked to work alongside other Senior Māori staff to provide cultural supervision to the local Registrar group. She was also offered a place on the Racism Awareness Steering Group, which she hopes will aid her in making change at a binational level, rather than simply a local one.
Chair
Dr Astha Tomar
President-Elect (2023-2025)
About the Racism Awareness Steering Group
The Racism Awareness Steering Group was formed last year, to address systemic racism and enhance mental health across psychiatry practice in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The Group’s mission is to provide strategic guidance to the College’s anti-racism work, making this webinar a key initiative in advancing its goal of fostering inclusive and equitable mental health practices.
The Group includes College members and consumers with professional and lived experience of the intersection of mental health and racism.
Read more about our public statement and work against racism.
CPD Hours (RANZCP members)
This webinar will give you 1 CPD hour.
Please be aware that instead of receiving a certificate of attendance, you'll need to log in to your MyCPD portal to complete a reflection and submit your draft activity approximately 2 – 3 weeks after the live session. Instructions on completing draft activities.
