AASW National Workshop for Social Workers: Mental Health in CaLD Families with Michael Elwan

I recently facilitated a workshop on mental health in CaLD families, hosted by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), the peak professional body for social workers in Australia.

The workshop, Across Generations: Practical Tools for Mental Health Conversations in CaLD Families (FPS), was delivered on 26 May 2026 and listed by AASW as a 3-hour professional development session in Mental Health, under Category 2: Skills and Knowledge.

This matters to me because social workers do not need more vague talk about “being culturally sensitive”. They need practical tools for real conversations inside real families; especially when culture, migration, silence, intergenerational tension, and mental health challenges are all present at once.

That is the purpose of this workshop. It is designed to help social workers open safer, more culturally grounded conversations in families where mental health is often felt deeply but spoken about carefully, indirectly, or not at all.

Why this AASW workshop matters

When people talk about mental health in CaLD families, the conversation often stops at stigma. That is too simplistic. Silence in families is rarely just denial. Sometimes it protects dignity. Sometimes it protects parental authority. Sometimes it protects younger family members from being seen as disrespectful, weak, or ungrateful. Sometimes it protects the whole family from shame.

But protection can come at a cost.

What remains unspoken can turn into distance, misunderstanding, conflict, emotional loneliness, or a quiet breakdown in family trust. One generation may speak through duty, sacrifice, and survival. Another may speak through identity, emotional safety, and self-understanding. Both may care deeply; both may still miss each other.

Social workers are often asked to step into that gap without enough guidance on how to do it well. This workshop is my response to that problem.

Mental health in CaLD families across generations

In this workshop, I am not approaching culture as a checklist. I am approaching families as shaped by migration histories, grief, race, faith, class, gender, family roles, and uneven exposure to Australian systems and language.

That changes practice.

A young person’s withdrawal may be read by a parent as disrespect when it is actually overload. A parent’s control may be read by a young person as domination when it is partly fear. A family’s silence may look like avoidance when it is also functioning as protection. If social workers rush these meanings, they often deepen the rupture rather than helping repair it.

So the task is not just to get families talking. The task is to make conversation safer, more respectful, and more useful.

What the AASW workshop covered

Participants worked through lived experience stories, case studies, role plays, culturally responsive questioning, reframing strategies, and identity-affirming communication.

That is exactly where I want the focus to sit; not on theory alone, but on the language and methods social workers can actually use.

We explored how to ask better questions without sounding intrusive or culturally blunt. We looked at how to reframe tension so that one person is not simply positioned as the problem. We also considered how identity, culture and belonging can be honoured without romanticising family dynamics or ignoring harm.

FPS-informed practice for social workers

The workshop included FPS-linked skills training, with learning outcomes covering psychoeducation, CBT reframing, and narrative approaches in case scenarios and role plays reflecting CaLD family realities.

That matters because social workers often need more than cultural awareness. They need structured, practice-ready approaches that can hold both clinical usefulness and cultural humility.

My aim in facilitating this session was to help practitioners leave with sharper judgement, stronger language, and at least one clear shift they could make in their own practice.

Who the workshop was designed for

The workshop was designed for social workers and practitioners supporting CaLD families across mental health, child protection, family services, and education.

So this is not a niche workshop for a tiny corner of the profession. It is relevant to any social worker trying to reduce stigma, strengthen family cohesion, and navigate intergenerational conversations with more skill and less cultural clumsiness.

This workshop was delivered through AASW professional development  as part of its national CPD program for social workers.

The established LEXs programme on mental health conversations in CaLD families can be commissioned directly for social work, mental health and community service teams. Delivery is online across Australia, with the depth matched to participants' roles.

We agree the audience, learning goals, format and fee before delivery. If your brief needs substantial new material, we agree that development and its cost before starting. To discuss a workshop, tell me who it is for, the conversations they need to handle and your timeframe.

Learn more about LEXs training: Multicultural Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Training.