CALD Child and Adolescent Mental Health – A Resource for Health Providers is written for health providers caring for Asian, Middle Eastern and African children and young people and their families. The resource has been developed to increase health provider’s cross-cultural knowledge, awareness and skills in working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) children and young people and their families in the context of mental health care.
As New Zealand becomes increasingly ethnically diverse, we need to ensure that we work towards Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services that are effective for CALD families. Culture and religion play a major role in the way that families perceive and respond to mental health concerns. As well, understanding the stressors of migration, refugee resettlement and acculturation is helpful in providing culturally competent assessment, intervention and support for CALD children, young people and their families.
There is growing evidence that culturally adapted mental health interventions improve engagement and outcomes for CALD clients and families. To be clinically effective, health practitioners need to be knowledgeable about Asian, Middle Eastern and African family values, norms and traditions, be flexible in their therapeutic approaches, and create an atmosphere in which both parents and children feel valued and respected. This resource provides the tools to support practitioners in this endeavour.
What this resource aims to do
This document aims to provide cultural information on child and adolescent mental health issues for CALD clients and families. It is not a stand-alone document and it is assumed that the viewer has an understanding of the following from the learning programme 'CALD 9; Working in a Mental Health Context with CALD Clients’ (Waitemata DHB eCALD ®services, 2012):
- The common issues and concepts that are involved in cross-cultural assessment.
- Explanatory models of illness.
- What we mean by 'somatisation' when working with CALD clients.
- Culture-bound syndromes.
- The DSM-V's criteria for Developing a Cultural Formulation for Diagnosis.
- Appropriate screening instruments and assessment tools, and issues related to these when working with CALD children, adolescents and families.
- How to collaborate in intervention and treatment with CALD clients and families.
- Ethnopharmacology.
- Familiarity with CALD Assessment Tools.
This resource provides a summary of current literature and guidelines for practitioners who work with CALD children and adolesents and their families.
The information in this resource reflects traditional values and practices that may not be relevant to all families, nor to some immigrant and second-generation clients, nor to the younger generations. It cannot be stressed strongly enough that in order to avoid stereotyping, this culture-specific information is useful as a platform only for exploring clients' unique needs and experiences.
Purpose
The purpose of this resource is to support services and practitioners providing mental health care for CALD children, young people and families develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to provide culturally competent assessment, intervention and treatment for these groups.
Who this resource is for
This resource is for health providers who are involved in caring for Asian, Middle Eastern and African children and young people with mental health related issues in primary, community, mental health, and secondary care settings. The resource complements the CALD Cultural Competency Training Programme provided by WDHB eCALD® Services (for more information go to www.ecald.com). NB CALD in this resource refers to culturally and linguistically diverse groups from Asian, Middle Eastern and African backgrounds.
It is highly recommended that the viewers of this resource will have completed the CALD 1: Culture and Cultural Competency course available via www.eCALD.com.
It is expected that viewers of this resource will:
- Have completed CALD 1: Culture and Cultural Competence
- Additionally, it is highly recommended that the readers of this resource will:
- Have completed CALD 2: Working with migrants (Asian) patients [course].
- Have completed CALD 3: Working with refugee patients [course].
- Have completed CALD 4: Working with interpreters [course].
- Have completed CALD 10: Working in a mental health context with CALD children and adolescents [course].
Additional valuable information on working in a culturally competent way with migrants, refugees and interpreters can be found in the following courses and supplementary resources all available via www.eCALD.com under Resources.
- CALD 5: Working with Asian mental health clients [course].
- CALD 7: Working with religious diversity [course].
- CALD 8: Working with CALD families - Disability Awareness [course].
- Supplementary resources with culture-specific information, case scenarios, tips, guidelines and approaches to supplement the above courses:
- Cross-Cultural Resource for Health Practitioners working with CALD clients-patients [pdf].
- Ayurvedic Medicine [video].
- Working with Religious Diversity [HTML object].
- Working with CALD families - Disability Awareness [HTML object].
- Working with Asian mental health clients [HTML object].
- Working with Middle Eastern and African mental health clients [HTML object].
- CALD Family Violence Resource for Health Practitioners: Working with Asian, Middle Eastern and African women [pdf, HTML object].
- Maternal Health for CALD Women: Resource for health providers working with Asian, Middle Eastern and African women [pdf, HTML object].
Out of Scope
This resource is specifically focused on mental health care for CALD children, adolescents and their families.
Specific information on maternal mental health, family violence and CALD mental health care for adults are covered in the following resources:
- Maternal health for CALD women: Resource for health providers available in PDF and HTML formats (Waitemata DHB eCALD® services, 2016a).
- Working with Asian mental health clients (Waitemata DHB eCALD® services, 2010).
- Working with Middle Eastern and African Mental health clients (Waitemata DHB eCALD® services, 2013).
- CALD Family Violence Resource for Health Practitioners (Waitemata DHB eCALD® services, 2014a).
