Silvio, who was just 7 years old when he arrived in Australia from Campania, Italy, says mainstream Australia is now a blend of cultures as we are all migrants.
Bringing people together is important and especially within the health care industry, he said. Silvio, his mother and older sister arrived in Australia 5 years after his father as he could not afford to buy airline tickets for the entire family. He worked tirelessly at Holden’s car factory to bring his family here.
“My aim through the MCCSA is to highlight the importance of health and to see the equality for all in accessing mental health services which is language, culture and linguistic appropriate,” he said.
Silvio has a wealth of knowledge in this area having experience on the board of Bene Aged Care and on the board of the Coordinating Italian Committee of the Italian community volunteers.
“A separate unit needs to be set up to deal with multicultural issues to focus and work as a cohesive team,” he said.
As a former nurse and mental health care professional, he aims to highlight the importance of needing to establish a multicultural hub in the psychiatric unit of hospitals – a transcultural mental health unit for mental health patience.
“This service would help people who have suffered from cultural change and trauma from war-torn countries,” he said.
“The unit should have health professionals who are linguistic appropriate and integrate with mainstream services.”
Multicultural Health Units have been proven to assist with decreasing the pressure on mainstream services as they offer programs appropriate for CALD communities.
“There are already people in the workforce who are bilingual, so this service would simply encourage them to do interpreting and they would get a small payment for it, just as First Aid Officers,” he said.
“This is a human rights issue and we need to keep up with the way we treat people.”
