PSY1025 · Indigenous health psychology: South East Asia and global insights

Overview

In this unit, you will have the opportunity to develop skills required to improve Indigenous mental health equity and cultural safety in healthcare in Southeast Asia and Australia. Drawing from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework, you will undertake five modules covering the domains of respect, reflection, communication, safety and quality, and advocacy. You will learn the importance of cultural humility, how culture relates to wellbeing and how our worldview influences our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. The unit facilitates your understanding of the impacts of implicit bias, stigma and racism, and the influence of your own culture when working with culturally diverse others. Such an understanding provides the context for self-reflective practice, cultivating respect in order to relate to clients as a whole person, rather than merely focusing on symptoms and diagnosis of disorders. You will learn to integrate an awareness of lived experiences, and how to communicate in a culturally safe manner. Grounded in a strengths-based approach, you will learn about principles from the psychology of Indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Analyse how one’s own culture, values, and biases influence perceptions and interactions with Indigenous peoples, fostering a deeper awareness of self.
2. Reflect on the understanding of the history, culture, and diversity of Indigenous communities in Southeast Asia and Australia.
3. Examine and implement culturally appropriate, safe, and sensitive communication strategies that facilitate trust and build respectful relationships with Indigenous communities.
4. Apply evidence-based and strength-based best practice approaches in indigenous communities’ health care.
5. Discuss strategies for advocacy, equitable outcomes and social justice in Indigenous communities’ health.
6. Demonstrate adaptability in interpersonal communication, rapport building, and empathic responding, ensuring cultural responsiveness and reflexivity in health care practices.

Workload

Two hours of tutorials ten times per semester. A one hour unit induction tutorial in Week 1. 123 hours guided online and self-directed learning. Attendance at tutorials is recommended in order to successfully complete in-class activities and related assessment tasks.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.