Indigenous Psychological Services

Indigenous Psychological Services is a private company that was founded in late 1998, by Dr Tracy Westerman, an Aboriginal Psychologist from the Nyamal people from the Port Hedland and Marble Bar region of Western Australia. While originating from WA and continuing to base its operations in this state, IPS has had a base in New South Wales since 2006 and continues to work at a community and organisational level across the Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. Dr Westerman developed IPS primarily to address the lack of access that Aboriginal people have to culturally appropriate and specialist mental health and psychological services relative to the high reported rates of mental health issues, most notably suicidal behaviours. As a completely PRIVATE company with NO funding for ANY of its services, IPS is unique within Australia as a business. Despite the difficulty with the development of a business that is focused on the provision of services to the lowest funded and marginalised people in Australia when considering per capita disadvantage, IPS has continued to flourish in this challenging and complex field. As a private company IPS' social justice focus has also meant that essential services such as psychological assessment, counselling and mental health intervention programs into remote communities (Aboriginal Mental Health Whole of Community Intervention Programs below) are done at no cost or cost neutral (meaning that IPS makes no profit) for a set number or programs annually. The no cost benchmark that IPS subscribes to annually is 30% of our turnover. For more information on IPS' social justice work into Aboriginal communities refer to Aboriginal Mental Health Whole of Community Intervention Programs.

Consistent with our focus on cultural security, IPS’ consultants are selected based on being of good standing within the Aboriginal community.  Importantly, all consultants hold tertiary qualifications in mental health with a focus on psychology. The vast majority of IPS’ consultants are of Aboriginal descent. Non–Indigenous consultants have gone through an extensive process of demonstrating their cultural skills in working with Aboriginal communities and have a proven track record of success in Indigenous mental health.

Aboriginal Mental Health Training

IPS have a reputation for the delivery of training across Australia and into remote and rural regions which is enviable. On average over 900 people attend an IPS training course throughout Australian annually. IPS has 24 unique training programs that have been developed specifically by and for Aboriginal people based on significant research and cultural validation. IPS will be launching some of its training programs in e-learning in 2011, please contact IPS to register your interest.

Aboriginal Mental Health Cultural Competency Intervention Programs

IPS have developed a range of Aboriginal specific workforce development products which enable organisations to identify baselines of cultural competency and specifically target areas for development via the range of training and other skills development products available from IPS. For further information on the range of products available download the Aboriginal Mental Health Cultural Competency Intervention Program brochure or view our Services page.

General Cultural Competency Programs

IPS has recently branched out to provide General Cultural Competency Intervention Programs which focus upon the development of culturally competent organisations. These programs are specifically for organisations who wish to increase their Aboriginal employee numbers by having recruitment processes that are culturally appropriate; developing mechanisms which present their organisation as culturally appropriate to the Aboriginal community, and finally ensure that Aboriginal people have a strong career pathway in the organisation. IPS has recently developed two new tests which enable their programs to be designed and evaluated specifically to the unique needs of each organisation. This includes; (1) the General Cultural Competency Test (GCCT) which assesses the cultural competencies of those who are in supervisory and/or management positions with Aboriginal people, and (2) The Cultural Needs Scale which is filled out by Aboriginal employees and looks at the sorts of perceptions they have regarding cultural barriers to effective employment and progression within the organisation. The results of these tests are then assessed and a specific program designed and delivered which enables the core areas of weakness to be targeted and hopefully improved. This is often training to the different groups based on IPS extensive range of training programs. Primarily the training programs are made up of modules from the Staying Deadly in the Workplace program. Often IPS then conducts a re-evaluation of cultural competencies following the training or other intervention to determine the extent of improvement that has resulted from IPS' programs.

Aboriginal Mental Health Whole of Community Intervention Programs

IPS delivers the ONLY uniquely researched and developed Whole of Aboriginal Community Intervention Programs in Australia. IPS also has the only evidence base of success in the delivery and impacts of such programs. Despite this as well as the substantial national and international recognition received as a result of this innovative work, IPS receives NO ONGOING government funding which would enable to wider dispersement of these programs into the most highly complex and chronically affected communities. Due to the evident success of our programs, IPS has a constant waiting list of communities Australia wide who are extraordinarily impacted upon by suicide, self-harm, depression and trauma which are amongst the highest world wide. Despite extensive government (and some private sector) lobbying by IPS, funding has not been forthcoming and communities mostly wait an average of 3 years for IPS’ programs. As a result, IPS donates a a benchmark of 30% of its time (taking the organisation away from income producing endeavors) to address these issues since its inception in 1998. For further detail on IPS Unique and acclaimed programs please refer to our Community Intervention Programs page. Some of the important outcomes achieved by IPS in summary include:

• Delivery of these programs into four different states and territories of Australia including the Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria
• Deliver of these programs into fourteen (14) distinct regions. This means that the programs have determined their relevance and impact across numerous Aboriginal cultural and language groups
• That the programs target three unique stakeholders - being service providers, the Aboriginal community and Aboriginal youth - the only program that has content that is delivered across these different groups. The focus is to skill up and mobilise 'whole communities' to deal with any issues that present
• The programs have been developed based upon the PhD of Dr Tracy Westerman in which population level research has been conducted into the unique nature of mental health issues such as suicidal behaviours, depression and self harm amongst others. Content has therefore been designed around the different risk indicators and protective factors evident for Aboriginal people
• All programs are evaluated - therefore providing a much needed evidence base for effective models of intervention that result in best long term sustainable outcomes for Aboriginal communities.

Research, Consultancy and Aboriginal Mental Health Service Evaluation

IPS has been engaged to complete numerous state and national program and organisational reviews since it's inception in 1998. In addition to this IPS also has a firm commitment to continuing its strong reputation as providers of culturally and scientifically sound research into the particular mental health needs of Aboriginal people. The PhD research of Dr Tracy Westerman has provided a solid foundation and desire to continue the exploration of Indigenous assessment and intervention models within our organisation.  

 **PLEASE NOTE: IPS DOES NOT PROVIDE COUNSELLING SERVICES

IPS also provides a range of services geared towards the culturally appropriate assessment of Aboriginal candidates via the delivery of Aboriginal specific selection centres which ensure that you have selected the best candidate but also that the assessment information is relevant to the retention of your employee. Second, IPS provides a range of training programs that focus on the retention of Aboriginal people in the workplace. Details can be found by downloading the Staying Deadly in the Workplace brochure.