Coming from a Samoan and New Zealand combined family background, Aloma Lane found growing up in Christchurch was comfortable and welcoming.  Among the predominant pakeha (European) population, Aloma felt people from diverse ethnic backgrounds were well accepted.

 Living with schizo affective disorder did not seem such a challenge, in an environment where people seemed patient with her need to sometimes take longer with tasks which others might find easy, Aloma said.

 ‘But when I came to Australian and tried to work in the hospitality industry, I found people were very intolerant of my not being as fast at certain tasks as other people,’ she added.  ‘My recovery is going well, but it still takes me longer to remember things, and this created a real problem in hospitality.’

 The need to take in detailed tasks quickly, and to be able to handle several things at once, created tension and unhappiness for Aloma in her former field of work.  But she now feels fully involved, acknowledged and contributing, since changing to support work with people living with intellectual disability.

 ‘Now that I’ve found work with people who appreciate someone who can take time and slow down to their pace, it feels like to perfect place to share my talents,’ Aloma said.  ‘But I know how depressing it can be for people who live with mental challenges to feel put down by doctors and others, who can treat you like you’re a second class citizen.’

 Cultural background, combined with challenges such as dissociative disorder, can magnify the difference gap across cultures, Aloma said.  Since coming to Australia she has found specialist doctors less respectful than in New Zealand, and she has felt that they think of her as something weird.

 ‘It has been really important to me to join the consumer support movement, because that has helped me to find others who can support me with understanding and appreciation of the challenges of feeling put down,’ Aloma said.  ‘When you fell put down culturally as well as because of having a different mental make-up, it can be doubly hurtful.’

 Mental health challenges are not as well accepted in Australia generally speaking, Aloma said.  ‘People in the community seem less able to accept difference here.  But I must say that the general practitioners I have come across seem to be one group doing well, in terms of trying to understand the needs of their patients living with mental health challenges, as well as coming from different cultures.’

 ‘What would be helpful, would be if people tried to stop and listen to those from other places, to give them a chance to establish respectful acknowledgement of their separate experiences.  That’s what I get from the CALD consumer network, where all sorts of cultural backgrounds come together and everyone gets heard and feels welcomed and respected.’