GOMA hosts art exhibition by refugee children

On Friday 20 June the Queensland Integrated Refugee Community Health Clinic (QIRCH) and Mater Child and Youth Mental Health Services (CYMHS) held a one-day exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), showcasing artworks by children from a refugee background to celebrate World Refugee Day 2008.

Artworks were produced by children from Moorooka State Primary School with guidance from CYMHS clinicians, and the exhibition reflected the children’s understanding of ‘community’ overseas and here in Australia.

QIRCH Clinic Manager Claire Brolan said the exhibition was a great way to not only celebrate the children of a refugee background who now live in Brisbane, but also showcase community collaboration and highlight the culturally diverse city and state in which we live.

“The objective of this programme was to guide the children, many of who share histories of cultural dislocation and family disruption with the settlement process, in expressing their diversity through art via a therapy group which they attended once a week for eight weeks with the Mater CYMHS clinicians,” said Ms Brolan.

The joint QIRCH and CYMHS initiative received a $7,000 grant from Multicultural Affairs Queensland’s Multicultural Assistance Program to further the profile of multiculturalism and refugee health care within Mater Health Services.

QIRCH Clinic provides an integrated, coordinated and culturally sensitive service to people of a refugee background settling into Australia, and those without access to Medicare. QIRCH comprises of volunteer GPs, specialist consultants, a full-time Clinic Manager, Clinical Nurse and Office Administrator. The clinic has up to nine hours of community health nursing per week and is further supported by a Refugee Health Development Worker, employed by the Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT).

QIRCH is advised by a Partnership Advisory Group with representatives from QPASTT, Mater, St Vincent’s & Holy Spirit Health, Queensland Health, South East Alliance of General Practice, Refugee Claimants Support Centre, Queensland Transcultural Mental Health Centre and the Multicultural Development Association.