Every day, all over the world, people make one of the most difficult decisions in their lives: to leave their homes in search of a safer, better life. This can be even more challenging when they don’t have a choice and must flee.

Nearly one in four people living in south east Melbourne are born overseas and over 200 languages are spoken in our diverse community. Over the past few years, SEMPHN and Monash Health Refugee and Wellbeing Team have assisted more than 720 Afghan refugees by coordinating their health care to help them settle in south east Melbourne. There is a well-established and growing Afghan community in our catchment, particularly within the City of Casey and Greater Dandenong.

Despite the struggles faced by Afghan migrants and refugees, the community remains unfamiliar with mental wellbeing.

“In the Afghan community, mental health is not very popular. As a refugee, people think if you feel stressed, nervous, sad, don’t like to talk to people and don’t feel good, it’s normal” says Mirwais, a Bicultural Program worker from SMRC who migrated from Afghanistan to Pakistan in 1996 when Taliban seized the capital Kabul, and after 20 years migrated to Australia in 2018.

Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre (SMRC) worked alongside Dari speaking people, as well as Better Place Australia and SEMPHN, to design a conversational podcast series that explains mental health and wellbeing issues in a way that makes sense for people from Afghanistan as they settle into life in Australia.

The new Healthy Mind, Healthy Life podcast series delivered in Dari draws on learnings from SMRC’s 30-year history of working with migrants and refugees, SEMPHN’s expertise in commissioning tailored health care and Better Place Australia’s clinical experience through delivery of evidence-informed suicide prevention initiatives. It explores the challenges people face at various stages in their lives, provides practical evidence-based advice and highlights the many supports available in the community. Each episode involves diverse community leaders and role models, psychologists, religious scholars and community workers sharing their experience and expertise.

Stana Cubra, Manager of Suicide Prevention at SEMPHN says:

 “Uprooting your life and settling in a new country is a significant change that brings many layers of uncertainty and challenges. For the Afghan and other cultural communities, having that safe space to understand and talk about mental health challenges in your language is paramount to living a healthy life.“

Mirwais oversaw the development of the podcast and found it was useful for his own mental health. “To mention and learn about mental health was very new to me. Through the podcast I learnt the meaning of mental health, to be open about my mental health and not be shameful about it. I think people will benefit from it and feel safer in sharing their own stories.”

The Healthy Mind, Healthy Life podcast series is free to listen to on Spotify, Anchor FM, Google Podcasts, Apple Music.