Mental health resources for international students
By Sean Mortell – published August 26
Mental health has become a high priority for many Australian residents, especially in the past two years. For international students, finding adequate resources for your mental health issues might be difficult, with language barriers or a lack of familiarity with your state’s services.
A great place to start is to reach out to a friend and have a chat, or check out what student wellbeing services your TAFE or uni has on offer. If you’re facing difficulties and need to take care of your mental health, the below resources may provide assistance.
A specialist group, Embrace provides mental health information and help for multicultural Australians, with a wide range of languages being available for both over-the-phone help and for navigating their website. General questions around mental health issues have been translated on the website into plenty of languages, in addition to specific coronavirus mental health.
The TMHC is a New South Wales based centre that works with health professionals across communities in the state to provide mental health assistance, particularly to a range of culturally diverse people who otherwise struggle to receive help.
For culturally and linguistically diverse people, the centre’s website is updated with coronavirus assistance and other mental health support for international students who require different avenues to receive help.
A website initiated by the federal government’s Department of Health, Head to Health is a site focused on providing a range of positive mental health support to all Australians, especially those with cultural differences.
The site has chat spaces and social media moves being partnered by support networks as well as newsletters that initiate professional help for those in need.
State-based services
Each Australian state and territory has their own services and websites for mental health assistance, and many cater towards culturally diverse people — for example, NSW’s free Mental Health Line. Each government or department website has a wide range of resources to sift through:
If your life or the life of someone you know is in danger, call 000 immediately.
As Australia’s leading suicide prevention, Lifeline provides 24/7 crisis support. is also expanding their resources to ensure they can provide adequate help for international students, particularly those facing language barriers or cultural differences.
Lifeline has a new number — 13 11 14 — for those who speak a language other than English can reach Lifeline via a free interpreting service. To access this service, dial the number and request to talk to Lifeline in whatever language you require. You can also call 131 450 and they can personally contact Lifeline to facilitate a call in the preferred language.
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