Stability within the Chaos: The Koori Kids Mental Health Network

Abstract

Introduction: The Koori (Aboriginal term for Indigenous people from South Eastern Australia) Kids Mental Health Network is a child, adolescent and family psychiatric service based at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, a community health service which is controlled by the Victorian Koori community and based in Melbourne. The Koori Kids Mental Health Network is a collaborating group of Indigenous mental health workers from the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and other health services together with a network of non-Indigenous workers from mainstream child and adolescent mental health services.Method: This article is a distillation of a 3-hour workshop involving seven members of the Koori Kids Mental Health Network. It comprised an introduction regarding the development of the Network, a section on the process by which Indigenous and mainstream workers have developed their working relationships and fostered each other's development according to the needs of Indigenous families, and a section on the ...