Psychological Support Programme and Mental Health Policies Awareness Raising Strategy

Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Australian Government

The Department’s Psychological Support Programme and Mental Health Policies Awareness Raising Strategy (the Strategy) aimed to raise awareness of mental health policies in the immigration detention environment to ensure detention staff have an efficient and effective way of gaining the skills to implement the mental health policies in their day to day work. The department’s mental health policies cover: Risks and Warnings; Protective Factors; Supportive Monitoring and Engagement; Mental Health Screening; Torture and Trauma; and Minors Policy.

The Strategy which is being implemented in immigration detention facilities and offshore processing centres from July 2014, consists of a range of training modes and awareness raising activities to identify and address gaps in existing arrangements and improve and build upon staff competencies in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviour.

The project developed an evaluation framework, plan and tools (online surveys, in-depth interviews and focus group workshops) to support the evaluation of the Strategy over the period July 2014 to June 2017. The project report provided:

• a review of the policy and program context
• theory of change / program logic and evaluation methods relevant to the Strategy
• ongoing monitoring against identified KPIs
• tools and guides for data collection and analysis
• terms of reference for specific evaluation studies; and
• a timetable for all monitoring and evaluation activities over the period.