« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Well? Issue 4: Spring/Summer 2004
National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minority Health: Mental Health and Well-Being Initiative
A National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minority Health (NRCEMH) has been established in Glasgow with the aim of helping to support the delivery of quality health care to minority ethnic communities and other groups whose quality of care may be compromised because of their ethnic background, faith or cultural identity.
Based at the Glasgow office of NHS Health Scotland in Clifton Terrace, the centre is funded by the Scottish Executive Health Department and employs a director, five project managers, two secretaries and a number of secondees for specific projects.
A Mental Health and Well-Being Initiative (MHWBI) has now also been established within the centre and funded by the National Programme, to promote greater awareness of race and mental health.
"The work of the centre is firmly based on the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and the Fair For All guidance," says project manager, Salma Siddique. "Our main emphasis is to influence the race and mental health agenda nationally by ensuring that the specific needs of people from minority ethnic communities are addressed. We'll be cutting across a number of issues including public health, social justice, education, suicide prevention, employment, smoking, sexual health and physical activity."
The current programme of work on the MHWBI includes:
Employment of a national race and mental health development worker.
Hosting a series of good practice seminars around Scotland between June and September promoting mental well-being.
Establishing a National Mental Health and Ethnicity Development Network with membership from NHS boards, voluntary sector, social work, education, service users and carers.
Developing an information resource for disseminating and promoting good practice.
Undertaking a stock take of the provision of mental health services across Scotland and their responsiveness to race and mental health.
Salma Siddique
National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minority Health
t: 0141 300 1040
e:salma.siddique@phis.csa.scot.nhs.uk
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is currently researching a project on developing capacity in a self-help group for Pakistani Muslim women with long-term mental health difficulties. www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/wip |
Mind Landscapes Following a recent field trip to Sri Lanka, Salma Siddique offers these thoughts on enhancing mental health in later life: "In Sri Lanka, 'elders' spend a lot of time on spiritual refection or meditation in the mosques, temples, churches, Kovals and the open air. The relationships people hold with the rural space and landscape are considered energising and spiritual, particularly the climbing of hills and mountains where walking rituals are referred to as 'good for the heart and head'. "As a British-born Asian travelling through the great Scottish outdoors, I too have encountered an individual or a group of fellow ethnic minorities wading through the heather to encounter a little spiritual connection with far away landscapes committed to memory. "Once I passed an older Asian hill walker near Glen Feshie who stood transfixed at the horizon. I asked him what it reminded him of. He said 'Kashmir'. "On another occasion I saw a film about a group of older Pakistani women who, after successfully completing their English For Speakers of Other Languages course, decided to visit the Western Isles which they often spoke about during the English lessons. What a wonderful image of these women dressed in traditional Punjabi dress travelling on a ferry across to Harris. The film ends with them trading Punjabi songs of home with local Gaelic folk tunes, and comparisons of how the Scottish landscape is not dissimilar to Pakistan. "Perhaps we're 'looking too far' to improve the mental health and well-being of older people from diverse communities - maybe the answer lies in the wide open spaces and spiritual connections to familiar landscapes?" |
« Previous | Contents | Next »