The Global and Cultural Mental Health Unit has continued to have a significant impact on immigrant and refugee mental health policy, education and practice. The Refugee Studies Program, funded through the Office of the Vice Chancellor, has contributed to an expansion of refugee-focused education and research in several faculties in the University, including the development of a refugee-focused University breadth subject due to commence in 2020 in collaboration with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies in the Faculty of Arts. The Unit has continued to contribute to migration and refugee mental health through its research projects and the work of its PhD students. The Commonwealth-funded ‘Mental health in multicultural Australia’ project (a continuation of the Unit-initiated Australian Transcultural Mental Health Network) contributed to the work of the Mental Health Council of Australia and to the development of policy frameworks and immigrant and refugee research agendas.
The Unit’s contribution to mental health policy and mental health system development in low- and middle-income countries in Asia is unparalleled, with direct involvement in development of mental health policies in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Myanmar, and major contributions to implementation of mental health law in Indonesia, mental health policies in Indonesia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and mental health and disability policy implementation in Indonesia and Vietnam.
The Unit’s PhD students have come from, and carried out research in and contributed to, mental health system development and disability and human rights work in Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Sri Lanka and China.