Mental health support for minorities wins top prize

Healthy Minds BME group

Staff from the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Healthy Minds service won both the Rochdale division and the overall prize in the Principles of Care Awards for going the extra mile to provide excellent care.

Staff from different cultural backgrounds recognised that a combination of stigma, language barriers and other factors meant that fewer people from these communities sought help for depression, anxiety, anger issues or stress.

In order to raise awareness of these issues, staff developed a play called 'mein pagal nein huhn' which means ‘I am not mad’ in Urdu.

The play focuses on the experiences of a young Asian man called Imran whose father has recently died.

Imran is struggling to eat, sleep and shower regularly but he and his family do not realise he is experiencing mental health difficulties.

The play ends with Imran accessing support from Healthy Minds which provides free, confidential advice to people experiencing common mental health problems.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapist Saiqa Naz said the outreach work had been incredibly successful.

She said: “In some languages there’s no real word for mental health so people don’t really talk about it. This means they often don’t access any support until they’re seriously ill.

“We wanted to encourage people to talk about mental health and emotional issues more and realise there is support available.

“We’re delighted to have been recognised for our hard work.”

Healthy Minds is open to anyone aged 16 or over who lives in, or is registered with a GP in, Heywood, Middleton or Rochdale.

The service offers a range of support from telephone counselling to group sessions or online therapy and can deliver support in a range of languages including Urdu.