Barriers to Mental Health Care and Possible Solutions in the Young: Yarns with the Victorian Aboriginal community
Dublin Core
Title
Barriers to Mental Health Care and Possible Solutions in the Young: Yarns with the Victorian Aboriginal community
Subject
Health services accessibility--Australia--Victoria
Electronic Resource Item Type Metadata
Journal Name
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
Volume
Vol. 60
Issue
No. 1
Publication Date
2025
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Document Type
Journal article
Language
English
ISBN
14401614
Region
Victoria, Australia
Access
Open Access
View Source
Abstract
Objective:
To identify the barriers accessing health (including mental health) services by Indigenous people in Victoria, Australia, and putative solutions, through yarns with 44 members of the Victorian Aboriginal community.
Methods:
This paper systematically explores grassroots barriers and potential solutions for Indigenous young people to engage and use health (including mental health) services. Elder-governed yarns were conducted via Zoom with 44 representative Victorian Aboriginal Elders, Healers, Senior and Junior people involved in the health and wellbeing of the Victorian Aboriginal community. These yarns were analyzed through an innovative, constructivist, multi-perspectival discursive grounded theory method.
Results:
Five pre-eminent themes emerged: the socio-economic barriers to services, the ongoing effects of colonization, disconnection and isolation from community and Country, pressures in society of living in two worlds and lack of cultural safety and racism. Detailed and rich day-to-day barriers and possible grassroots solutions were proffered.
Conclusions:
The analyzed yarns provide important detail about everyday barriers Indigenous peoples face in healthcare services and potential ways forward to improve the situation for Indigenous young people and their kinship networks. This paper can help shape future policy and its implementation. In particular, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations running traditional Indigenous healing programmes alongside Western health management, ensuring formal processes predominate and are monitored for their day-to-day effectiveness
To identify the barriers accessing health (including mental health) services by Indigenous people in Victoria, Australia, and putative solutions, through yarns with 44 members of the Victorian Aboriginal community.
Methods:
This paper systematically explores grassroots barriers and potential solutions for Indigenous young people to engage and use health (including mental health) services. Elder-governed yarns were conducted via Zoom with 44 representative Victorian Aboriginal Elders, Healers, Senior and Junior people involved in the health and wellbeing of the Victorian Aboriginal community. These yarns were analyzed through an innovative, constructivist, multi-perspectival discursive grounded theory method.
Results:
Five pre-eminent themes emerged: the socio-economic barriers to services, the ongoing effects of colonization, disconnection and isolation from community and Country, pressures in society of living in two worlds and lack of cultural safety and racism. Detailed and rich day-to-day barriers and possible grassroots solutions were proffered.
Conclusions:
The analyzed yarns provide important detail about everyday barriers Indigenous peoples face in healthcare services and potential ways forward to improve the situation for Indigenous young people and their kinship networks. This paper can help shape future policy and its implementation. In particular, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations running traditional Indigenous healing programmes alongside Western health management, ensuring formal processes predominate and are monitored for their day-to-day effectiveness
Cataloger
Haley Lesemann
Citation
“Barriers to Mental Health Care and Possible Solutions in the Young: Yarns with the Victorian Aboriginal community,” ICMGLT Digital Library, accessed November 3, 2026, https://library.icmglt.org/items/show/801.