The document is Asian Family Services’ public position statement responding to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

AFS supports the Strategy’s focus on prevention, early intervention, access, workforce development, lived experience, quality, and partnerships. However, the statement emphasises that equity must be clearly reflected in how services are designed, funded, delivered, measured, and held accountable, especially for Asian communities.

It highlights that Asian communities are highly diverse and often face barriers to mental health and addiction support, including stigma, language barriers, lack of service knowledge, limited trust in mainstream systems, confidentiality concerns, shame, immigration worries, and system complexity. AFS argues that a one-size-fits-all approach will not meet these needs.

The statement calls for culturally responsive, community-led, and linguistically appropriate services, supported by sustainable investment, stronger commissioning pathways for trusted Asian providers, workforce development, and better disaggregated data. Overall, AFS urges the Strategy to intentionally design services with and for Asian communities, rather than adapting mainstream services after the fact.