The climate crisis continues to significantly and disproportionately impact Indigenous Peoples across Canada and worldwide. Major issues faced by Indigenous youth are threats to education, employment, food sovereignty, and access to land based Indigenous knowledges, which are all key to the youths’ mental wellness. Existing data show that Indigenous youth experience mental health problems across all dimensions at significantly higher rates than non-Indigenous youth. A community-driven regional study by an Indigenous academic research team responds to the need for the inclusion and empowerment of Indigenous youth perspectives on the impacts of the climate crisis on mental health. A goal is to generate responses to address and end Indigenous youth mental health crisis such as with mood disorders, addictions, PTSD, and suicide along with policy solutions to end environmental genocide and to scale up to national and international solutions. A mixed method approach of qualitative and survey data was used as driven by local, national community partners. Results include meta-themes and concrete calls to change in policy and practice both nationally and regionally in Canada. Indigenous leadership and data governance frameworks for the project were determined by community partners, Elders, and youth. Results provide Indigenous Knowledges solutions for practice/interventions and prevention to remove barriers for improved mental health outcomes for Indigenous youth. Next steps in the project include, in the context of the climate crisis, implementation and evaluation of mental health prevention programming and a national impact assessment of Indigenous youth mental health and expanding research collaborations through existing partnerships with the Poche Centres at University of Sydney and University of Melbourne.

Context and Aim
Australia’s mental health system remains heavily weighted toward acute and clinical care, while community-based psychosocial supports are underfunded and fragmented. In Queensland, more than 90,000 people with moderate to severe needs miss out on support each year, leading to unnecessary crisis presentations and growing pressure on hospitals. The community mental health and wellbeing sector delivers non-clinical supports that play a crucial role in early intervention and secondary prevention. By addressing social drivers of distress and enabling people to stay connected, these services help prevent crisis and foster mentally healthy communities. This project explored how community-based, person-led models could better meet these unmet needs.

Methods and Analysis
The Psychosocial Approaches to Thriving Health Systems (PATHS) Project used a place-based methodology in Townsville, engaging over 90 participants including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, carers, older adults, and workers in high-stress industries. Guided by experience-based co-design, the project developed a scalable model centred on low-barrier entry points, culturally safe supports, and stronger system integration. National and international research, cost modelling, and evaluation evidence from Queensland services informed the design.

Outcomes
The model reflects what communities said they need: face-to-face, relationship-based support delivered locally by trusted workers, with pathways that scale from early engagement to complex needs. It embeds cultural governance and lived experience leadership, ensuring safe, inclusive options for diverse communities. Cost modelling showed delivery at $3–$65 per person per day, well below acute care costs.

Future Actions
Governments should prioritise scalable psychosocial supports outside the NDIS, embed co-design and place-based commissioning, and strengthen the community mental health workforce, particularly peer and cultural roles. Integration across health, housing, education, and community systems is essential to create mentally healthy settings, achieve equity for diverse communities, and relieve pressure on an overstretched acute system.

Middle childhood (5–12 years) is a formative period for identity development, emotional regulation, and cultural learning; it is shaped by children’s relationships with family, community, culture, and Country. However, limited evidence exists on social and emotional wellbeing initiatives designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children during this life stage. To address this gap, a team of Aboriginal and non-Indigenous researchers conducted a scoping review to identify and map initiatives that strengthen cultural wellbeing, relationships, and community connections for Indigenous children aged 5–12 years across Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and was led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. Academic and grey literature, published between 1946 and 2025, were searched across multiple databases.
Nine studies met the inclusion criteria, revealing shared characteristics across identified initiatives including culturally grounded Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) frameworks, co-design approaches, Indigenous governance, and delivery within school and community settings. Initiatives that engage Elders and embed cultural practices are most aligned with Indigenous concepts of wellbeing. The review illustrates the scarcity and promise of culturally responsive wellbeing initiatives for Indigenous children in middle childhood. The findings also reveal underrepresentation of Indigenous researchers in research leadership and governance roles.
The review highlights that strengthening Indigenous leadership and ensuring community-driven design are critical to building culturally grounded programs that foster identity, belonging, and emotional wellbeing in Indigenous children. These approaches are key to creating sustainable, impactful initiatives that reflect community strengths and priorities.

Deadly Minds™: Embedding Mindfulness Movement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing.

Context and Aim:
Deadly MindsTM integrates mindful movement, yoga, and cultural learning to strengthen the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and adolescents. In 2024, Yogazeit – a small charity that co-developed the world’s first Indigenous Youth Yoga Teacher Training – gifted its programs to Curtin University’s Act Belong Commit campaign, supporting national dissemination of these culturally grounded wellbeing practices. This collaboration provides a platform for respectful knowledge sharing, empowering educators and communities to embed holistic wellbeing strategies that honour both evidence and culture.

Methods & Analysis
The program is guided by anti-colonial, trauma-informed, and co-designed principles, embedding yarning, cultural exchange, and movement practices connected to Country, kinship, and community. Educators are supported with structured resources, mindfulness tools, and practical guidance to integrate wellbeing within classrooms and community settings. Evaluation employed participatory and culturally safe methods to assess engagement, implementation, and outcomes, highlighting the importance of ongoing consultation, relationship building, and share learning between partners.

Outcomes
Nineteen educators, community leaders, and health professionals completed Deadly MindsTM Empower Facilitation Training across the Kimberley and Pilbara regions, reaching over 400 children and youth. Seven language translations have supported revitalisation of language and reconnection to Country. A digital teacher training version has been developed to expand accessibility and ensure program sustainability. Evaluation findings indicate increased educator confidence, enhanced student engagement, and strengthened cultural identity, resilience, and connection to wellbeing practices.

Conclusions
Deadly MindsTM demonstrates the value of culturally anchored wellbeing programs in preventative mental health. Future directions include expanding to remote and regional communities nationwide, ensuring all evaluation and delivery processes remain ethical, respectful, and responsive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders leadership and community priorities.

Context and Aim:
There have been calls for culturally informed research to address Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQA+ Peoples (BlaQ) health and wellbeing. BlaQ peoples and communities are subjected to discrimination that causes significant physical and mental health impacts and harms. BlaQ voices are underrepresented in research, particularly regarding specific approaches to understanding BlaQ cultural determinants of health and their benefits for good mental health. Diverse approaches are required to provide the foundational work to progress and foreground evidence-based and evidence-informed research. BlaQ storywork has potential to communicate BlaQ cultural wellbeing aspirations to inform future cultural determinants of BlaQ health. Such approaches offer opportunities to improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes for BlaQ peoples through its foundational contribution.

Methods and Analysis:
I use Indigenous storywork to visually illustrate and narrate potential BlaQ cultural determinants of health and wellbeing domains. This approach makes accessible the strengths-based elements required to better understand the specific requirements for BlaQ strong culture and health and their benefits for good mental health and wellbeing. My approach highlights the importance of making space to consider the powerful role that Indigenous methodologies can bring to informing good BlaQ mental health and wellbeing.

Outcomes:
Providing deeper understandings of the cultural determinants of health have been significantly beneficial for the culturally informed care of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. The provision of foundational work to inform the development of BlaQ cultural determinants of health and wellbeing is essential to delivering culturally informed and safe care for BlaQ peoples and communities. This presentation is a contribution to the foundational work required to advance BlaQ health and wellbeing research.

Future actions:
Future research is required to develop culturally informed BlaQ cultural determinants of health and wellbeing domains that are BlaQ led, designed and implemented according to BlaQ aspirations and self-determination.

Indigenous data sovereignty:
As a Dharug scholar and artist, I have drawn on my personal and individual creative processes and expression to create my BlaQ Storywork. It does not include any sensitive cultural material or traditional collective knowledge. I am providing my own scholarly contribution, creative expression and personal interpretation.

Supporting social and emotional well-being requires tools and approaches that are culturally grounded, strengths-based, and responsive to the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Conventional assessment tools often fail to capture Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, which emphasise connection to (or disconnection from) family, community and culture. The Aboriginal version of My Story Cards was developed through a process of consultation and co-design with Aboriginal people including, Elders, young people and health workers to create an empirically rigorous, engaging and practical visual tool that enables individuals to identify what matters most to them and explore themes in relation to other needs and priorities.
My Story Cards use images representing specific concepts to prompt reflection, narrative, and prioritisation across areas such as connection, identity, safety, health, purpose, and belonging. The culturally meaningful visuals and narrative format allows participants to focus discussion and express thoughts, values and emotions, and develop personal well-being plans. The tool can be used in one-on-one settings, group workshops, or community programs to support goal setting, healing, and shared understanding between clients and practitioners.
Findings from its application in Aboriginal health and community contexts demonstrate that My Story Cards are well accepted by clients and practitioners. They help strengthen communication, enhance self-awareness, explore and prioritise competing needs. Participants describe the process as empowering and respectful, fostering trust and enabling deeper discussion about needs and aspirations that may not arise through conventional interview or survey methods.
By integrating visual communication with cultural approaches, the Aboriginal My Story Cards contribute to culturally safe practice and promote holistic well-being. The approach offers a practical model for embedding participatory and culturally responsive tools in health promotion, mental health, and community development initiatives across diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings.

Context and Aim
Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people. The prevalence of suicide in rural and remote Australia is more than 50% higher than in cities. Drivers of this disparity include geographic isolation, limited access to services, and stigma among rural communities.

Methods and analysis
Live4Life (L4L) is an evidence-informed, whole-of-community model for rural and regional settings. L4L aims to reduce youth suicide by building community capacity and resilience through stigma reduction, improved mental health literacy, and promotion of help seeking/offering behaviours among young people and adults.

A key strength of L4L is its collaborative, cross-sectoral approach, engaging local government, schools, health services, and young people. While all communities deliver core components, implementation is adapted to local needs, knowledge, and networks, ensuring relevance and impact.

Youth leadership is central to L4L through the ‘Crew’ programs which empower young people to actively contribute to their communities. These programs build skills in leadership, public speaking, health promotion, and advocacy, and provide ongoing opportunities for alumni to collaborate on mental health promotion after leaving school.

Outcomes
The model has been shown to improve mental health literacy, reduce stigma, and increase the confidence of both young people and adults to seek and provide support.
‘Catching up with the Crew’, a qualitative study on long-term outcomes for L4L Crew found benefits were sustained for several years.

Future actions
L4L’s whole of community approach involves outcomes for multiple stakeholder groups and cohorts, that are cumulative and interact over time to produce deep transformational change. Expectations and standards of evidence for program effectiveness should take this into account. Evaluation approaches must incorporate systemic factors not purely short and medium outcomes such as changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among target cohorts.