Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing

Milroy, J., Platell, M., & Kashyap, S. (2022). The Interface: Western Tools and the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In B. Mercer, H. Macdonald & C. Purves (Eds) Psychological Interventions from Six Continents. Culture, Collaboration, and Community, Routledge, New York, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003124061

ABSTRACT

This book presents psychological assessment and intervention in a cultural and relational context. A diverse range of contributors representing six continents and eleven countries write about their therapeutic interventions, all of which break the traditional assessor-as-expert-oriented framework and offer a creative adaptation in service delivery. A Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment model, including work with immigrant communities, and indigenous modalities underscore individual and collective case illustrations highlighting equality in the roles f the provider and the receiver of services. The universality and uniqueness of culture are explored as a construct and through case material. Some chapters describe a partnership with a Eurocentric scientific model, while others adopt a purely community method, preserved with indigenous language and subjective methodology. This volume brings together diverse therapeutic collaborative ideas and recognizes relational, community and cultural psychologies as integral to mainstream assessment and intervention literature. This book is essential for psychologist and clinicians internationally and graduate students.