Andrew Cummins

Tell us about your career to date in the mental health sector.

In 1989 I stated as a cleaner within a mental health ward that lead to orderly work, then to rehabilitation, and then to becoming an Indigenous Health Worker.

What made you choose a career in mental health?

I think it started as a cleaner in the area and then led to being utilised for my identity to assist with communication with mob who came into the units. This led to wanting to be more involved with care and support and then becoming an Indigenous Health Worker.

What do you find most rewarding about your current role?

What do you find most challenging about your current role?

The current process with client release from prison and the systemic process of this system and the lack of active intervention that creates recovery change. This leads to release and returning back to the same cycles. There is also listening to these men’s story and seeing the bigger picture—learning about their traumatic life situations with coming from foster care and going to youth detention and then into prison. Like working with 40 year old men who have only been in society/community for around 3 years and they accept being in prison as normal and don’t know how to manage within the community.

Tell us about a day in the life of you at work. What does a typical day look like?

I am driving to Woodford Prison. Organising client visits and locations within the prison. Going in and touching base with the Cultural Liaison Officers inside prison and seeing if there is anything I should know about. Also passing on any news in regards to good stories, as they truly love to hear positive news of mob going forward. Then start my round with going to units and start seeing my clients. I try to bring some story of community and current yarns of whats happening to create yarns. Then once we have our talks, we start talking about their plans, needs, concerns and goals. Once we talk about how they are going and where they are at, we then start to look at how it’s impacting, what thing they are doing and basically work on what they can do to maintain their wellbeing and looking mostly at their goals and plans with being released and going forward.

What are three misconceptions you think that people have about working in the mental health sector?

1. Clients like jail and accept this. That they choose to be there.
2. They have meals, a bed and no dramas. Everything is good.
   
   I feel there is a lack in realising how many mental health consumers (undiagnosed and First Nations people not getting supports) who are not treated and currently prisoned. Issues like trauma, social barriers and not getting connected to supports within the community leads to being incarcerated. Possibly due to lack of treatment and support within the mainstream system, the lack of First Nation people focus to change and the impact leads to ongoing incarceration. Like how many people in prison have had a mental health history and who are being locked away due to their current condition or not being diagnosed and with no supports. Also considering the volume of First Nations people being incarcerated. This would also lead to homelessness due to the social impact from the intergenerational trauma.
   
   I feel there is a loss or not identified issues with current mental health and people who have SEWB issues and are being incarcerated and not getting active treatment. There needs to be an understanding and stats to truly see how many mental health concerns are being missed by reviewing clients coming into prison as part of the intake process. Not just a misconception that he’s crazy and needs to be locked up.
3. Systemic Government spending money to build new youth detention centres at Woodford and a new mega prison at Lockyer Way is the answer to social change. This only creates jobs to a systemic western world with creating employment with jobs. These prisons lock away First Nations people as service to the Western World. If money like this was spent for social change, with recovery programs and rehabilitation programs, that actually support issues like current social barriers and the hidden and unseen connection to mental health needs to First Nations people, that are being incarcerated due to the intergenerational trauma situation that failed government strategies have created and are still embedding, will only pave a way to maintain the current social disfigurement that First Nations people face due to the trauma we current live in with the majority of our people.

What advice would you give to people who are interested in working in mental health?

Creating and supporting a persons recovery can be grounding for you as a person within a workplace situation. For me it’s also the personal connection to my identity and my life history and journey that brings me to this position.

Do you feel this service needs to be a 24 hour / 7 days a week service for community?

Yes 100%

Do you feel your service needs brokerage to the positions?

Yes due to working with marginalised community and being able to assist and support at the frontline when working.

Do you have any other thoughts you’d like to share?

More focus in community to build change to equality, with local initiatives to support families like tutoring, home supports, school connection to home programs and cultural capabilities focus.

Create more positions to the volume of clients.

We need more case management and actual support workers on the ground.

We need to review the current incarceration rates in correctional centres and the prevalence of mental health issues among those incarcerated.

We need more positions with First Nations people in roles within incarcerations and Youth Detention.

More employment and youth programs and support to family and funding needs to be injected into those areas to create change.