Victorian Refugee Health Network E-bulletin December 2009 The Victorian Refugee Health Network brings together health, settlement and community services to be more accessible and responsive to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers. News and Events 1. Disability and Refugee Scoping Project in North-West Metropolitan Melbourne is a project undertaken by Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, funded by DHS. It explores the extent to which refugees and newly-arrived communities access disability services in the North-West Metro region. Disability and health services will be approached for focus groups early next year. For further information about the project click here or contact Becky Lo, Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre 251 High Street Preston 3072 Ph: 9496 0200 beckyl@spectrumvic.org.au 2. The Institute for Community, Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives (ICEPA) at Victoria University is holding a series of free training sessions to help improve the capacity of health service providers and community organisations to support diabetes self management using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Cultually and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. For further information, dates and venues click here 3. Teeth Tales: Addressing child oral health inequalities in refugee and migrant background communities. The past 3 years of Teeth Tales research has generated new knowledge about sociocultural understandings of child oral health. This in turn has informed the development of a community intervention and evaluation trial. The Australian Research Council has announced a linkage grant from 2010 until 2013. For further information click here Resources 4. “Our Stories” is a small printed booklet of 10 stories written by refugees and migrants living in Wyndham and by produced ISIS Primary Care. The stories are personal reflections about the narrator's culture, struggles back at home, life in refugee camps and experiences settling in Australia. These booklets are available to those who work with these refugee and migrant communities. Please contact Anna Stybowski via email if you would like further information at: anna.stybowski@isispc.com.au 5. The Victotrian Refugee Health Network website Nutrition page has recently had an extensive range of resources uploaded. Thank you to Jacinta Craven (VRHN intern) for all her work in bringing these resources together. To view the nutrition resources click here 6. Translated brochures about seeking refuge at Womens' Shelters have been produced by Combined Womens' Refuge Group in Queenland. The brochure contains some Queenland specific information but also general information about seeking help. Languages include Tagalog, Japanese, Spanish, Juba, Vietnamese and Chinese. For the brochure in English click here and for translated brochures click here. For further information about the project email cwrg_seqld@hotmail.com 7. A Somali Mental Health Project Tool Kit has been produced by ADEC (Advocacy Disability Ethnicity Commitiy). The Tool Kit was developed from a Mental Health Education Project with the Somali community in North Melbourne. To view the Tool Kit click here Professional Development 8. Refugee Health Nurse Training Calendar 2010 is now available. An Intensive Introduction for Nurses will be held on March 22 and 23, all nurses working with refugees are invited to attend these two training days. For further information and dates click here 9. Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) are offering English for Bi-Lingal Health and Community Service Work in 2010. Places still remain in this 36 week course. For further information click here 10. Foundation House 2010 Semester 1 Training Calendar is now available. To download the training calendar and registration form click here As a result of feedback the VRHN E-Bulletin has a new colour scheme to enable the E-Bulletin to be viewed on a range of monitors. Subscriptions and contributions to the Victorian Refugee Health Network E-Bulletin are welcome. |