Improving the utilisation of bilingual counsellors within a public sector mentalhealth service

Abstract

An urban, public sector Area Mental Health Program reviewed its own bilingual counsellor programas part of an Area-wide quality improvement project, and found that the counsellors' roles needed tobe better defined; that mainstream staff needed to have more access to their expertise as culturalconsultants; and that their function as an Area team, rather than as service based staff, needed to beencouraged. The bilingual counsellors decided to take up this challenge, and with the support of theArea Director of Mental Health, worked together to redefine their roles.