Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centre Program
In response to the Bringing Them Home Report of the 1997 National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, the Australian Government funded a number of programs for the social and emotional well being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These programs are administered through the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in the Department of Health and Ageing and include the Bringing Them Home, Link Up and Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centre Programs.
There are 12 Social and Emotional Well Being Regional Centres across the country. The Social and Emotional Well-being Regional Centre’s have four core objectives. They are as follows:
- to provide curriculum development and training for all workers involved in the area of Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing;
- assess the training needs of these workers;
- provide professional support to the health workforce; and
- to develop cross-sector linkages.
The SEWB Regional Centre provides support and assistance to workers employed in the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) funded Bringing Them Home Programs
- Link-up Victoria (located at VACCA)
- Mental Health Programs (OATSIH) (statewide)
- Bringing Them Counsellors (statewide
Evaluation of the Bringing Them Home and Indigenous Mental Health Programs Final Report
The Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH) within the Department of health and Ageing in Canberra administers four national programs under the Bringing Them Home (BTH) and Indigenous Mental health Programs.
Two programs are for members of the Stolen Generations: the Link-up Program which helps Aboriginal people trace their family history and reunite with family members; and the BTH Program which provides BTH Counsellors, mainly in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs).
The other two programs are the SEWB Regional Centre Program and the Mental Health Program which funds Mental Health Service Delivery Projects in ACCHSs.
The Link-up, BTHC and SEWB RC Programs were established by the Australian Government in response to the Bringing Them Home Report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1997).
Through a tender process, OATSIH asked the independent social reach company Urbis Key Young to evaluate the programs (Report May 2007).
This included looking at:
- what was working well and not so well about the programs
- whether the programs were meeting the needs of clients and Stolen Generations members; and
- what could make the programs work better in the future
The report provides a clearer view of the number of key findings of the evaluation and also the number of key recommendations which were made.
For more information or a copy of the full report click here or contact OATSIH (02) 62895291 or email: oatsih.enquiries@health.gov.au. |
