Improving the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

About this course

This course was developed by Emerging Minds in partnership with The Healing Foundation.


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This course uses a positive, strengths-based, ‘hope-inspired’ focus to support your work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, reinforcing their connections, strengths and skills.1,2 The course will help you to think about the ‘whole child’ – their hopes, aspirations, strengths, stories of connections to family, kinship, Country and culture – as well as family histories of problems, challenges and trauma. The course also uses a social-political-historical lens to build an understanding of disadvantage, loss of culture, and trauma in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families.1,2

Who is this course for?

This course is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. This includes those practitioners working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled or mainstream services, and those working in private practice.

How long does this course take?

It is estimated that this course will take you approximately four hours to complete. This includes reading material and watching videos.

You can undertake the course across multiple sessions at your own pace. The last screen you visit before logging off will be bookmarked, and you will have the option of returning to that screen when you next log in.

1. Chamberlain, C., Gee, G., Gartland, D., Mensah, F. K., Mares, S., Clark, Y. … Nicholson, J. M. (2020). Community perspectives of complex trauma assessment for Aboriginal parents: It’s important, but how these discussions are held is critical. Frontiers in Psychology (11). Available here.

2. Atkinson, J., Nelson, J., & Atkinson, C. (2010). Trauma, transgenerational transfer and effects on community wellbeing. In N. Purdie, P. Dudgeon & R. Walker (Eds) Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing practices and principles. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

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