Story: Shima Nazir
High levels of mental illness amongst minority ethnic groups has been a cause for concern. For a very long time BME communities have experienced inequalities in their rates of mental illness, service experience and service outcome. BME groups are often over-represented in secondary mental health services.
Mental illness is still a taboo in lots of communities but this is even more common in BME communities. Often people feel embarrassed about their mental health difficulties and hide their problems, which affects people's ability and willingness to seek help. Some of the reasons behind this include stigma, cultural taboos, racism and discrimination, as well as the accessibility of services to different groups. This can mean that help is not sought until a crisis occurs.
Yet, we knowthat early intervention and prevention leads to better outcomes.
Many communities will initially seek help from religious groups. Mental illness in some BME groups is attributed to spirit possession, jinni, black magic or ‘testing by God’.
The Sheffield Community Development Team has been working hard over the last 3 years to reduce the inequalities experienced by Sheffield's Black and Minority Ethnic community. We engage with communities and community organisations to have a dialogue about mental health. From this the team develops collaborative, preventative mental health strategies. We also work with statutory mental health to support them to develop and deliver culturally appropriate services.