The 10 th Emotional Health Carnival June 10, 2011 Rozsa Centre, University of Calgary
Liza Chan, Emotional Health Carnival Partnership Member Executive Director, Calgary Chinese Elderly Citizens’ Association
Rationale Adaptation/adjustment challenges Mental Health (MH) issues are a social taboo Inadequacy of appropriate & cultural competent MH programs Not knowing MH programs & resources
Goal to raise emotional/mental health awareness to encourage self care & help seeking to connect MH services to Chinese community to promote inclusiveness & access to MH services Create a reference model for future initiatives for other ethnic communities
Means How: Carnival & community education When: annually Who:10-14 Emotional Health Carnival partners including Chinese agencies, immigrant serving agencies & main stream service providers
Partners Alberta Health Services - Calgary Zone Calgary Chinese Community Service Association Calgary Chinese Elderly Citizens’ Association Calgary Family Services Calgary Family Therapy Centre Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association Centre for Newcomers Chinese Christian Mission of Canada, Calgary Service Centre Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary Immigrant Services Calgary
Cultural competent approach Why choose ‘carnival’ as the title? Understanding cultural taboo Linguistically competent approach First language materials and translation
Community readiness Change of seeking help behaviour Articulate their needs of MH services & information Featured workshops to replace carnival Community profile Increased Mandarin speaking immigrants Engage Mandarin speaking stakeholders Organize programs catered to Mandarin speaking community
Learning Shared vision & belief can build strong partnership Sensitivity to community readiness / profile leads to changing strategies Key stakeholders & ethnic media support enhance the success of the event Lacking of accessible first language mental health services Realization of the close relationship between MH and family violence
Outcomes Increased community MH awareness New services & alliance: Chinese Community Response to Family Violence, Depression Support Group, Old Memories Old Melodies Build and share resources among partners and service providers Ethnic media put MH in their program
Challenges Lack of sustainable funding, on yearly basis Not affordable, not reliable, not accessible MH services Not enough resources allocated to ethno-cultural communities Difficult to measure behavioural/attitude change Lack of first language providers/practitioners
Equitable MH services Cultural competent service providers First language service providers First language liaisons link ethno-cultural communities to main stream service providers Liaisons housed in accessible and familiar locations First language materials and education
Calgary Chinatown Lions Club Calgary Chinatown Lions Club – Sole sponsor in 2011 Sing Tao Newspaper (Canada 1988) Ltd. Fairchild Radio FM94.7 Fairchild TV
For EHC information, project coordinator, Phyllis For a copy of this presentation, visit Chinese Community Response to Family Violence THANK YOU!!