Mental Health In Australia

As a future social worker, this student is passionate about mental health and the effects of mental illness on individuals and society. Also, as stated in the previous essay, this student is currently studying abroad in Sydney, Australia at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). For this essay, the population that was focused on was those with mental health issues in Australia with an interest in the differences between America and Australia’s policies. There is a group at UNSW called Student Minds which is a student run group dedicated to bringing awareness to Mental Health on college campuses. There were two individuals interviewed by the student, both Australian but one of Asian descent and one of African descent. Both were female and

For the purpose of anonymity, this essay will continue by saying Student A and Student B when referring to the interviewees. Once there was a general understanding of the interviewee’s cultural backgrounds, the student explained the approach that would be taken throughout the interview. This was a person-in-environment approach or an ecological perspective. This essentially means that student took into account the influences from family and society that may have affected the interviewee’s perspectives (Cummins, Sevel, & Pedrick, 2018). One of the disadvantages that was noted by the student was that both of the interviewees came from cultural backgrounds where mental illness was not talked about and/or was heavily stigmatized by their culture. This could be considered a disadvantage because of the environment that they were raised in causing them to have preexisting notions about mental health that can be hard to change. The tools that were used throughout the interview were body positioning and spatial considerations, touch, tone of voice, silence, furthering statements, and facial expressions, eye contact, and head movements (Cummins, Sevel, & Pedrick, 2018). Each attending behavior was used in a different way, some more than others, and at varying degrees. For example, touch was only used to shake hands at the end while eye contact was used

If this were a social work assessment, the format of the conversation would have varied where instead of it being a more formal, question/answer format, there would have been more discussion about the individual’s life and struggles. Some of the considerations that were learned about these individuals that may be helpful for an assessment were, first, biological in that they each had either personal or familial ties to mental health issues which could cause them to be more susceptible to these issues. Psychologically, there did not seem to be any considerations worth noting, other than the impact these events could have had on their emotional state. Social and cultural considerations would be closely related in that they are currently in university where their related factors of education, lifestyle, values, organizations, etc. are all connected. These considerations would be important when discussing assessments because of the impact that they have on university students’ everyday