FUSE 2019 Recommendations

Recommendations were:

• Working directly between government and businesses to establish a government accreditation system that rewards businesses who can work towards being inclusive, eliminating discrimination and subconscious bias in the workplace and in recruitment processes. In order to achieve this recognition, businesses needed to embed cross cultural competency training, a commitment to diversity and employ young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

Government could incentivise the participation of corporations in this scheme through government subsidies.

• Providing targeted support for young people from refugee and migrant communities to learn about the Australian labor market and equip them with the skills and knowledge to enable effective entry into the workforce.

Short term:

• Ensure that cultural competency training is provided for mental health practitioners, social workers, and other allied health workers that engage directly with young refugee and migrant people to address accessibility gaps.
• Establishing peer support/safe spaces where young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds can share understandings and experiences of mental health, and form a community to address stigma and taboo within communities about mental health.

Long term:

• A strategic vision for a future where young people at risk of or experiencing mental health issues are comfortable enough to seek out youth mental health services and where these services are sensitive and responsive to their cultural context/migrant and refugee experiences.
• Creating specific, trained roles within the mental health sector for people from migrant and refugee backgrounds to facilitate access, pathways and offer appropriate support.

An extension of their narratives and a stop to stories that cause harm to their participation.

• The appointment of a federal level Minister for youth who can bring light to their issues.
• Designing programs and services that take into consideration:
  • i) culturally competent frameworks which make youth services accessible,
  • ii) sustainability in programs beyond one-off opportunities, and
  • iii) family-centred approaches, involving their families and communities to support and addressing intergenerational conflict.