Mental Wellbeing and Aboriginal SEWB

Mental wellbeing

The state of mind, enjoyment of life, and ability to cope with daily stresses.

Positive state of mental health

ability to cope with everyday challenges.

Coping with change

Managing challenges and everyday life transitions successfully.

Connection to others

Maintaining supportive connections to others and the community.

Levels of functioning

How well a person meets daily living challenges.

Areas of functioning

Daily living skills, social settings, leisure, cognitive skills, and emotions.

Adaptive behaviour

Behaviour enabling adjustment to different environments.

Maladaptive behaviour

Behaviour interfering with an individual's ability to adapt to society.

Mental illness

An impairment in one or more areas of everyday functioning.

Social wellbeing

The ability to form connections and meaningful relationships with others.

Emotional wellbeing

The ability to express and feel emotions appropriately.

SEWB framework

multidimensional and holistic framework of social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

connection to body and behaviours

feeling strong and healthy and able to participate as fully as possible in life

connection to body and behaviour pros

Access to healthy food and culturally safe health services.

connection to body and behaviours cons

Chronic communicable disease, smoking, and poor diet.

connection to mind and emotions

The ability to manage thoughts and feelings effectively.

connection to mind and emotions pros

Education and strong personal identity.

connection to mind and emotions cons

Cognitive impairments, racism, mental illness, and unemployment.

connection to family and kinship

Maintaining interconnectedness through cultural ties and caring relationships and a sense of belonging

connection to family and kinship pros

Learning family history, having a loving family, and culturally appropriate services.

connection to family and kinship cons

Lack of cultural education, family absence, or violence.

connection to community

Connection to individuals and families in an area to support and work together

connection to community pros

Support networks, Aboriginal mentors, and community harmony.

connection to community cons

Family feuding, violence, and social isolation.

connection to culture

Sense of cultural identity and values of heritage and past.

connection to culture pros

Contemporary expression of culture and cultural involvement.

connection to culture cons

Elders passing without transmitting culture and language under threat.

connection to country

Traditional and spiritual association to a specific area of land.

connection to country pros

Land rights and time spent on country.

connection to country cons

Restrictions on country access and dispossession of land.

connection to spirit, spirituality and ancestors

Sacred and interconnective relationship between country, humans, and non-human beings across time.

connection to spirit, spirituality and ancestors pros

Cultural events, ceremonies, and contemporary spiritual expression.

connection to spirit, spirituality and ancestors cons

Having no connection to the spiritual dimension of life.

Mentally healthy state

state of emotional and social wellbeing in which individuals realise their own abilities, can cope with the normal stressors of life, work productively and contribute to their community

Mental health problems

Stressors causing temporary emotional, cognitive, and behavioural difficulties.

Mental health disorder

Psychological dysfunction involving impairment and deviant thoughts, feelings, and behaviours causing imparement in everyday functions and distress.

Internal factors

Biological and psychological factors originating from within a person.

Biological factors impacting mental wellbeing

Genetics, neurotransmitters, medication responses, and hormones.

Psychological factorsimpacting mental wellbeing

Ways of thinking, beliefs, perceptions, decision-making, and problem-solving.

External factors

Social and environmental factors originating outside a person.

Social factors in mental health

Relationships, school, education level, culture, and stressor exposure.

Stress

Normal response to perceived inability to cope with a pressure situation.

Anxiety

Physiological arousal with apprehension and dread responding to future ambiguous threats.

Phobia

An anxiety disorder with persistent, irrational, intense fear of a stimulus.

Phobia symptoms

Intense, irrational fear and avoidance of a stimulus.

Specific phobia

Marked and persistent fear about a specific object, activity, or situation.

Social anxiety disorder

Marked fear or anxiety specifically about social situations.

Agoraphobia

Fear of situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable.

Biopsychosocial approach

biological, psychological, and social factors interact to influence wellbeing.

Holistic view

Considering the whole person functioning within a unique environment.

GABA function dysfunction

Failure to produce, release, or receive enough GABA to regulate neuronal transmission.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Strengthening of synapses within the memory circuit related to a fear stimulus.

Classical conditioning in phobias

Learning to fear a neutral stimulus through repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus.

Operant conditioning in phobias

Maintaining a phobia through negative reinforcement via avoidance behaviour.

Cognitive bias

Systematic error in thinking affecting judgment, decision-making, and memory.

Memory bias

Distortion that enhances or impairs the recall of a memory.

Catastrophic thinking

Overestimation of potential danger and assuming the worst possible outcome.

Environmental triggers

External events or experiences that initiate the development of a phobia.

Direct exposure

Personally experiencing a traumatic event leading to a phobia.

Indirect exposure

Observing other people experience traumatic events.

Stigma around seeking treatment

Social disapproval of an individual's personal characteristics or behaviour.

Anti-anxiety benzodiazepines

GABA agonists that increase GABA effectiveness to reduce physiological arousal.

Benzodiazepine limitation

Once medication stops, phobic symptoms may return.

Relaxation techniques

Methods like breathing retraining to reduce physiological and psychological stress arousal.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

Challenging irrational thoughts to replace them with realistic thoughts and behaviours.

Systematic desensitisation

Gradual exposure to phobic stimuli through a hierarchy until fear is extinguished.

Psychoeducation

Challenging anxious thoughts and discouraging avoidance by providing a balanced perspective.

Biological protective factors

Maintaining a nutritious diet and adequate sleep patterns.

Psychological protective factors

Cognitive-behavioral strategies and mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation

Focusing attention on breathing while thoughts, feelings, and sensations arise.

Social protective factors

Receiving emotional and practical support from family and friends.

Cultural determinants

Protective factors helping maintain strong connections to culture and wellbeing.

Cultural continuity

Intergenerational maintenance and transmission of cultural knowledge and practices.

Self-determination

The right to freely control political status and cultural, social, and economic development.

Connection to country as determinant

Traditional and spiritual association maintaining strong cultural bonds.

Kinship as cultural determinant

Interconnected family relationships supporting cultural identity and community.