Join Associate Professor Clinton Schultz as part of the three-person plenary session, Wisdom Across Nations – Advancing Social and Emotional Wellbeing, at the upcoming Preventative Mental Health Conference in Parramatta. In his contribution, Clinton will explore the concept of Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) as well as an expanded holistic, lore-based wellbeing model that reflects the depth, complexity and connectedness of First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing. This session will challenge narrow understandings of mental health and offer a broader, culturally grounded vision for prevention, healing and wellbeing. A powerful plenary for anyone seeking to think differently about what wellbeing truly means.

The Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) Model represents Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ perspective of holistic health, which consists of dynamic and complex interrelationships between the self, and seven domains of wellbeing, within the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander political, cultural, and social history. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations typically offer SEWB services alongside other clinical services to address suicide, domestic violence, and drug and alcohol use. The SEWB model is now the framework in which both mainstream and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations use as a strategy to achieve wellbeing and prevent suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. However, a survey by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and findings from the evaluation of a SEWB model of service in Western Australia identified opportunities for training and capacity as a key need for those delivering SEWB services. This presentation summarizes the discussions of a workshop that gathered key knowledge holders on SEWB on the development of a SEWB training in Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.

Canada has a dark history of systemic colonialism that has left a legacy of intergenerational personal trauma for the Indigenous populations. For all non-Indigenous Canadians, there has also been powerful impacts due to colonization. For example, Indigenous peoples experience high rates of mental health problems and account for over 50% of the homeless across the country, despite being only 4% of the general population. Non-Indigenous Canadians have the privilege of creating a contributing to systems based on the harms to Indigenous Peoples who have been forced into harms and oppressions to provide these opportunities. Currently, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report (2015) provides a timely context for systemic change that can improve the lives of all individuals living in Canada and provide healing to Indigenous communities; the Report is what has led to the creation of National Reconciliation Day in 2021. This presentation addresses Indigenous mental health strengths and challenges in Canada and provides practical implications of implementing decolonial change to reduce and end mental health challenges and homelessness among Indigenous Peoples. Examples from Dr. Stewart’s community-based health research (2001 to 2024) provide concrete illustrations of issues such as racism and oppression, cultural identity, tensions between Western and Indigenous worldviews, and the importance of traditional knowledges, in addressing homelessness.