PANDA releases new mental health resource

Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) has launched a perinatal online chatbot, helping new and expecting parents to navigate crucial perinatal support resources 24/7.

The launch will provide culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities access to more translated mental health support tools, with an audio grounding strategy available in 40 languages.

Developed in partnership with Ethnolink, the exercises offer evidence-based grounding strategies to support perinatal mental health via audio. Available free of charge via the PANDA website, the culturally tailored resources are designed to deliver equitable access to self-management tools that will provide support to new or expecting parents during the often isolating and overwhelming perinatal period.

PANDA CEO Julie Borninkhof said early intervention was crucial to promoting ongoing mental wellbeing for all Australians.

“We know that people from multicultural backgrounds are far less likely to seek mental health support. In fact, delayed access to services and support can result in higher acute and involuntary mental health admissions,” Borninkhof said.

“Language, cultural misunderstandings and limited knowledge of mental health and available services are among the major barriers that multicultural parents come up against when seeking help.

“Getting people connected to information that supports them to be more confident in having conversations, and being able to ask for help quicker — whether it’s within the medical system or whether it’s within their social system — is really important.”

As of 2021, just over seven million people in Australia were born overseas, representing 27.6% of the population. What’s more, roughly 3% of the population, or 872,000 people, reported speaking English not well or not at all.

Borninkhof said culturally informed mental health tools are crucial in delivering safe, accessible and accurate support to a growing cohort of multicultural Australians, but are often overlooked.

“For many different communities around the world, conversations around mental health conditions and vulnerability are not commonplace,” she said.

“From our own consultation with these communities and work with Ethnolink, we know that having recorded and translated content is really important in allowing people to digest and take in any information themselves, but also to share it with their community. It’s really important to build up mental health literacy more generally.”

The audio grounding strategy takes participants through a five-minute guided breathing exercise designed to shift focus to the present moment and return to feeling calm and centred. The evidence-backed exercise is delivered with cultural context across languages including Arabic, Hindi, Simplified Chinese and Dari, and can be practised anytime, anywhere.

Audio content can provide more accessible and engaging information for people for whom English is a second language and is shareable.

Image caption: PANDA CEO Julie Borninkhof. Image: Supplied.