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SBS Australia
8 hours ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Suicide prevention workshops in language try to help refugees, asylum seekers find mental wellness
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts. Nuha Abdul Razaq arrived in Australia from Iraq as a refugee in 2005. She says the topic of suicide is something many from the Arabic-speaking community find especially difficult to talk about. "It's a topic which they never talk about it in our country. When I was in Iraq or many people, I have clients from Syria, from different countries, from Lebanon or from Jordan, maybe we didn't talk it, we didn't talk about suicide in our countries. It's like, some people they feel it's shameful." She now delivers suicide prevention workshops in Arabic for refugees and asylum seekers. The workshops are part of a program launched by Wesley LifeForce which provides training in suicide prevention in six languages: Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Karen, Khmer and Tamil. It's co-designed with survivors of torture, trauma and forced displacement, paired up with the program by an organisation called Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors - STARTTS. Ms Abdul Razaq says the success of the training is in large part because it's delivered by people like herself who understand the challenges and stresses of displacement and resettlement. "To move to another country, it's not easy. Some people, they stay in camps for 10 years, 12 years, moving to other country, which is different languages, financial, most of them, they don't have any money to spend, even if they move to other country, if they want to find a job, it's struggling to get a job. And when you get settlement to Australia, another one, you have all (the) stress comes with you." Recent research shows refugees and asylum seekers in Australia experience disproportionately high rates of suicide. Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows between 2007–2020, humanitarian entrants to Australia were 1.7 times more likely to die by suicide compared to other permanent migrants. Bethany Farley, the National Training Manager at Wesley Lifeforce, says the broader figures around mental wellbeing for refugees and asylum seekers are also deeply concerning. "There's reports that show that over 50% do actually report that they have poor mental health with more than 25% experiencing PTSD. There are some other reports around thoughts of suicide, which for men can be as high as 10% and for women can be as high as 17%." Deputy CEO of STARTTS Lachlan Murdoch says the trauma of war and displacement presents complex psychological challenges for refugees and asylum seekers. "So being pushed out of your country in traumatic circumstances, exposure to conflict and war, being subjected to things like shelling and bombardment, in some cases being imprisoned and being held in circumstances of great deprivation. Experiences of torture. So all those things impact people in ways that affect their psyche. So refugees experience much higher levels of anxiety and depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation." He says for asylums seekers, these experiences of trauma can be further complicated by fear of being returned to the country they have fled. "Asylum seekers are in a situation where they're living in protracted uncertainty. And so there's not clarity for them about whether the person will remain in a situation of relative safety or could be returned to circumstances of danger. So that experience of uncertainty also compounds the traumatic effects of exposure to violence and to conflict." Ms Farley says these challenges are exacerbated by a lack of access to culturally appropriate care for refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Australia. "Then you add the other challenges of a language barrier, not understanding how the processes work. And finding services that have translators or people that can actually understand the nuances of how their community and culture responds to different situations, to different processes. The mental health models themselves can be alienating in that they do not meet the needs of a multicultural community." The suicide prevention training delivered by community members like Ms Abdul Razaq aims to address some of these issues by facilitating workshops where participants can share experiences in their own language and learn from each other about the supports available. Ms Abdul Razaq says the stigma attached to speaking about suicide was initially a barrier for her. "And at the beginning I was stressed when I was trained for the first time and I hearing something, some information, but later I accepted that if that's happening in the community, we need all the community to know about it." After delivering the first training session, she says she was inspired by the openness of the participants, and their ability to move past any shame they might associate with talking about suicide. "Nine women attended and it was very good and I liked the way they talk about it. They open their mouth and talk about their stories as well. And it's to build comfortable space between us and to build the trust between us. When they want to talk, they will talk in a normal way." If you or someone you know needs crisis support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. More information and support with mental health is available at and on 1300 22 4636. Embrace Multicultural Mental Health supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
SBS Australia
3 days ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Suicide prevention amongst refugees
SBS Indonesian 18/06/2025 08:44 Mental health challenges are often further exacerbated by a lack of access to culturally appropriate care and information. Wesley LifeForce is one organisation working to fill this gap, by offering suicide prevention training for refugees in six languages. Listen to SBS Indonesian every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 3 pm. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to our podcasts .
