Collaboration designs a mental health support platform
22 Aug 2025
Young people from culturally and linguistically diverse LGBTQIA+ communities have embraced the opportunity to collaborate on a project designed to support mental health literacy.
Sydney University hosted a design-a-thon event which was funded by SWSPHN under the Department of Health and Aged Care’s Targeted Regional Initiatives for Suicide Prevention program.
It was one of nine grants of between $50,000 and $200,000 issued to community groups and organisations to fund a variety of activities which included peer-led group supports, and creative and awareness campaigns.
The design-a-thon event called for young people from South Western Sydney to create an online hub for mental health literacy among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) youth who identify as LGBTQIA+, along with an ongoing campaign to support it.
The hub will include information in multiple languages and real stories of people seeking help for mental health concerns.
Dr Horas Wong from Sydney University said the event brought together a strong group of young people from CALD LGBTQ+ backgrounds and was supported by around a dozen community organisations, who contributed mentors and judges.
He said participants were “highly engaged throughout, generated multiple high-quality ideas and reported having an amazing experience”.
“We’ll be working closely with the winning team to develop their idea as part of the mental health hub. We also plan to share our experience in the upcoming multicultural health conference in November,” Dr Wong said.
In August this year, LGBTQ+ young people from culturally and linguistically backgrounds worked together to create a multilingual online information hub and a suicide awareness campaign, as part of the design-a-thon project.