isee-ilearn launches digital storytelling project to raise awareness of depression in CALD and refugee communities

Posted by Sarah Stokely on 19 August 2011 | 0 Comments
Tags: challenge

This morning, Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator The Hon. Kate Lundy has launched The Universal Stories of Healing from Depression DVD in the languages of people from Afghanistan, Burma and Sudan

Universal Stories of Healing from Depression is an innovative audio-visual resource which has been developed by isee-ilearn to raise awareness of depression in refugee communities. It can be viewed online via computer or mobile phone, or on DVD.

There are three stories from three different communities spoken in English and the languages of Dari (Afghanistan), Karen (Burma) and Sudanese Arabic (Sudan). The stories, which have been developed with people from Afghanistan, Burma and Sudan, reflect the culture, values and traditions of those communities.

Using illustrations and spoken dialogue, each story looks at the problems people face in their community as they adjust to change, while they’re establishing themselves and rebuilding their lives in Australia. Each story examines the pressures that can lead to mental health problems in general and depression in particular. Help-seeking and recovery are looked at in a culturally-relevant manner.

The stories were developed by isee-ilearn in association with beyondblue: the national depression initiative, with seed funding from The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI). The project was a joint winner in TACSI’s $1million Bold Ideas Better Lives Challenge in 2010.

The innovative online software program, italk, developed by isee-ilearn, also enables people to record their own dialogue in their particular language or dialect – so the resource can be used in a range of communities where languages other than English are spoken. People can upload the stories to the italklibrary (www.italklibrary.com) where they can be seen and shared, not only in Australia, but internationally via the internet. 

isee-ilearn Director, Christopher Brocklebank says the stories are powerful because they break down language barriers and enable people to consider differing cultural perspectives on depression. 

“Storytelling has helped the people we worked with recognise depression as a significant problem within refugee communities,” he said

Foundation House in Melbourne and The Melaleuca Refugee Centre in Darwin both assisted the project team to access people from Sudan, Burma and Afghanistan for ongoing participation in the development, distribution and evaluation of these stories. 

• The DVD is available FREE and can be ordered online at www.beyondblue.org.au or by calling 1300 22 4636. 
• Update: 9 December 2011. The Universal Stories of Healing from Depression project team have published a process report on this, phase 1 of the project. It can be downloaded here:
   Universal Stories of Healing from Depression - first phase evaluation report