Building Mental Health Capacity of the Auslan workforce

The recent Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System provided an opportunity for the Victorian Government to suggest major reforms to the mental health system in order to improve access to services, service navigation and models of care. It identified the need to strengthen and improve the use of language and communication services offered in mental health settings, particularly increasing the number of interpreters with specialist mental health knowledge and capability.
The project will deliver a mental health training course for accredited Auslan and Deaf interpreters, so that they are better equipped to interpret for Deaf and hard of hearing clients in mental health settings. Among other outcomes, the project will result in two bespoke course modules focused on suicidal ideation and depression, and forensic mental health, deliver mental health training course using online, in-person and/or hybrid models to National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreter (NAATI) certified Auslan and Deaf interpreters.