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 program as part of an Area-wide quality improvement project, and found that the counsellors' roles needed to be better defined; that mainstream staff needed to have more access to their expertise as cultural consultants; and that their function as an Area team, rather than as service based staff, needed to be encouraged. The bilingual counsellors decided to take up this challenge, and with the support of the Area Director of Mental Health, worked together to redefine their roles.

Linguistic Minorities in Canada and Health

“…L'une met l'accent sur le recrutement de professionnels de la santé mentale biculturels et bilingues ayant reçu une formation afin qu'ils travaillent directement avec des clients parlant la même langue qu'eux. L'autre consiste à créer des postes de paraprofessionnels, ces derniers travaillant en étroite collaboration avec les professionnels de la santé mentale (Tobin et al, 2000).…”