Islamically senstive mental health support

In this video, Dr Ahmed Hankir, describes how better mental health support might be provided within mainstream healthcare settings. His recommendations can be described as an Islamically-sensitive approach to mental health.

Dr Hankir makes the following recommendations for Islamically-sensitive mental health support.

• High quality faith-informed training for practitioners to equip practitioners with a basic knowledge about Islam.
• A better awareness of the important role that Islam plays in the lives of Muslims.
• Recognition of Islam as a resource for better mental health resilience and recovery.
• Seek advice from trusted religious practitioners, such as Muslim hospital chaplains.
• Tackling distrust among Muslim people towards mainstream health care services.
• The use of simple customary language, such as saying ‘salaam’ in greeting can help to develop a rapport.
• Attain sufficient knowledge about Islam to reassure Muslim clients that their mental health problems are not, for example, a punishment from God or an indicator of weak faith.
• Address bias or discrimination (racism and Islamophobia) against Muslims among mental health support providers.

Over to you

Make a note in your reflective diary about whether, how, and why you might consider including this approach as part of your practice so that you are ready to take part in the discussion step for this week (Step 2.27).