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Muslim Community Members Face Mental Health Problems Requiring Cultural Knowledge for Help
Mental health issues touch the Canadian Muslim community as it does all Canadians. Annually, 1 in 5 people in Canada will struggle with a mental health issues.
The Manitoba Islamic Association holds workshops to help people in the community with their mental health challenges. In this program, journalist Zuher Almusre from U Multicultural Channel spoke with Khalid Iqbal, founder and director of Rahmaa Institute, who put on the workshop. His non-profit organization studies family issues experienced by Muslims living in North America.
According to Iqbal, mental health is a real issue facing the American and Canadian public, and the Muslim community is not exempt from this. "We, as Muslims, are not different from anybody else. We all suffer from it because of our many issues, whether finances, relationships, health, or any other issues we can face. Especially here in Manitoba, the winter season affects people's mental health."
As Sophia Mirza, an immigration lawyer in Winnipeg, explains, there are unique differences in each community that need to be addressed differently than other communities. So a mental health issue in our [Muslim] community may be specific in that it's related to our community."
She continues explaining. "whether it be you're a new immigrant, newcomer and that you are lonely, or missing some of the cultural aspects, or friends or family...having someone who understands those things to the core, is critical in order to help." She commented that she thinks that bringing the community together to address these things is very helpful, speaking of this event put on by the Manitoba Islamic Association.
On participant, Muhammad Kabir ventured to say about mental health issues are "not well recognized in our community because of the stigma. He said that the workshop really increased his awareness about mental health issues.
The workshop leader, Iqbal, was pleased to see a number of youth who came to the program too.
He stressed that it's important that the Muslim Community know that there are many places that they can go in Winnipeg to get help with their mental health challenges.
Stay tuned for more Civic discussions on Civic Platform: https://u-channel.ca/civic-journalism/
Contact Zuher Almusre, our civic journalist, to share your story and explore civic issues at zuheralmusre@u-channel.ca.
The project is funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
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U Multicultural is the ethnocultural media channel established with the objective of serving the diverse communities and contributing to the dynamic multicultural identity of Manitoba and Canada by offering accessible multi-ethnic television and radio services that offer information programming and other high-quality programming focused on ethnocultural communities of Canada.
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