โThe strength and success of QPASTT is ultimately because it was established in response to the needs that were highlighted by the community itself.โ
Rita Prasad-Ildes, Convener of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
The late 80โs and early 90โs in Brisbane witnessed the birth of Queenslandโs social and community services sector. A change of state government in 1990 led to significant policy reform, including Queensland signing up to Australiaโs National Womenโs Health Program. That policy shift enabled more womenโs health positions to be funded, including a Multicultural Womenโs Health Worker – a position held by Rita Prasad-Ildes at the Brisbane Womenโs Health Centre. Through that role, Rita connected with women from refugee backgrounds – particularly from Latin American communities – who were expressing concerns that their needs as refugee survivors of torture and trauma were not being met. They were struggling with a medical model of intervention for trauma recovery that focused on treatment through medication and medical interventions, rather than a more holistic approach to wellbeing.
Rita Prasad-Ildes in a Westside News article on 15 July 1992 about the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
In 1991, the Womenโs Health Centre established the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group to bring together people from refugee communities and service providers to advocate for the needs of newly arrived refugees. In 1992 they obtained a small grant from the Consumers Health Forum of Australia to document the needs of survivors of torture and trauma. Through this research, survivors of torture and trauma from Brisbaneโs Vietnamese, Cambodian, Spanish-speaking and Farsi-speaking communities were able to voice their experiences and express their needs in relation to recovery and settlement.
The research found that the needs and expectations of torture and trauma survivors were varied and therefore any service aimed at providing support and assistance had to be holistic, flexible and adaptable in its approach and be prepared to provide very practical assistance in the areas of social, welfare, and educational assistance, counselling, medical and a range of therapeutic assistance, as well as community development. Above all, it had to provide a place of safety in the community to enable the rebuilding of lives. The outcomes of this research formed the blueprint for the establishment of QPASTT.
โThe clinical perspective, people being medicated, was too narrow. People had limited opportunity to talk about their problems. People were not very comfortable with that model.โ
Marco Ramirez, member of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
Elvia Ramirez and Hussein Ahmed in the news in 1995 about the opening of QPASTT.
(L-R) Hussein Ahmed, Adele Rice AM, Rita Prasad-Ildes, Saeed Gujari, and Marco Ramirez, members of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
โQPASTT was special because it was founded by people who came as refugees. They came because they were already community advocates and persecuted because of that. After they came here, they still continued to advocate for the community.โ
Sheenah Turnbull, member of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
Meanwhile, across Australia, there was growing momentum for a national funding program to enable longer-term counselling and interventions to support survivors nationwide and to improve their access to mainstream services.
โI was a member of the National Settlement Advisory Council with Paris Aristotle. We had the opportunity to pitch the idea of a national funding program for services for survivors of torture and trauma to the federal Minister for Health. We pitched a concept and wrote up the program known as PASTT โ the Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma.โ
Rita Prasad-Ildes, member of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
In December 1994, the Commonwealth Department of Health established the national Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (PASTT) and asked the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group to establish a new, community-based service for survivors of torture and trauma in Queensland. As a new organisation, QPASTT received invaluable support from existing torture and trauma services across Australia – particularly Paris Aristotle and the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture – who generously shared their research, resources and expertise.
โThe thing that marked them (Foundation House) then and now is that they were sharers. If Iโd say โoh, we havenโt got any material like that, in Queensland,โ they would just share absolutely everything.โ
Adele Rice AM, member of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group.
State directors from Australiaโs PASTT agencies meeting at QPASTTโs office in 1995.
QPASTT is officially opened on 5 December 1995 by then Minister for Health, the Hon Peter Beattie AC.
Auspiced by the Brisbane Migrant Resource Centre, QPASTT opened its doors in 1995 employing three staff members who managed administrative functions of the organisation, provided counselling, advocacy and support services to clients, delivered training to stakeholders and services, and represented refugee issues on a range of government and policy forums.
โThe team was small and we did everything. And we worked to make sure it felt like a place of safety for our clients.โ
Desi Castillo, QPASTTโs Administration Officer in 1995.
Within a month of opening, QPASTTโs funding was doubled by Queensland Health after the establishment of a Non-English Speaking Background Mental Health Policy Statement. In 1997 QPASTT was funded to deliver early health assessment and intervention to refugees under the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Service (IHSS). The QPASTT story is characterised by expansion and growth as it has responded to community need and global events.
โMy memory of our first few years were punctuated by the impact of significant global events on our clients โ the bombing of Belgrade, the war in Kosovo, the events in East Timor. There was a huge surge in the demand for our services.โ
Paula Peterson, QPASTT Director (1995-2007).
Since 1995, QPASTT has grown to be a state-wide organisation, today employing 114 staff from 46 cultural backgrounds and supporting over 6,000 clients annually through specialised counselling, group programs, community development, youth and family work. Led by a stable and committed Board of Directors and with a professional and passionate staff, QPASTT stays true to the organisational blueprint set by the community back in 1992 – an open, flexible, and culturally responsive service supporting survivors of torture and trauma and their families and communities in Queensland.
โAt the time QPASTT was founded, the policy environment for settlement looked on people as a resource. And if you unlock that resource and remove the barriers, then people heal and flourish and thrive and give back.โ
Adele Rice AM, member of the Brisbane Refugee Torture and Trauma Research and Support Group
