Understanding Mental Health in Muslim Communities

Investigate how faith affects access to mental health services

Research shows that Muslims in Britain are under-referred to mainstream services for mental health problems. When they are accessed, their rates of improvement are lower.

On this four-week course you’ll explore Muslim experiences of mental health and how to provide support for Muslim communities.

By contextualising Muslim experiences of mental health, you’ll learn skills and techniques to provide effective mental health support to minority communities.

Discover how understanding mental health can benefit the Muslim community

Whilst faith can help to address mental health problems, it can also contribute to them.

You’ll learn how mental health experiences vary in the Muslim community – from common mental health problems including depression and anxiety to circumstances affecting mental health such as Islamophobia or refugee status.

By understanding the issues affecting Muslim communities and how they influence mental health, you’ll be able to create more accessible routes into support.

Explore a spiritual understanding of Muslim mental health

You’ll appraise the inclusion of ‘spiritual’ as a fourth factor within bio-psycho-social understandings of mental health. With this framework, you’ll be able to create environments where Muslim clients feel comfortable discussing their faith and mental health.

Learn a holistic approach to pastoral care from Cardiff University

You’ll reflect on how holistic frameworks within religious and spiritual support can improve care when working with Muslim communities and increase recovery rates.

Guided by the experts at Cardiff University, you’ll understand the distinct ways in which Muslim communities are affected by mental health issues and will gain a variety of skills to provide more effective access and care to minority groups.

This course is for anyone who provides mental health support in Muslim communities such as medical or social care professionals or religious pastoral carers.

It’s also suitable for anyone who wants to know more about Islam or mental health care practice.

This course is for anyone who provides mental health support in Muslim communities such as medical or social care professionals or religious pastoral carers.

It’s also suitable for anyone who wants to know more about Islam or mental health care practice.

• Identify some of the distinctive ways in which Muslims may experience mental health problems
• Develop an understanding of why experiences of mental health problems can vary between different groups of Muslims
• Explore the impacts of Islamic beliefs and practices on mental health
• Evaluate the inclusion of spiritual or religious factors in existing holistic frameworks for understanding mental health problems when working with Muslim individuals and communities
• Reflect upon how mainstream health and social care practitioners might create conditions or environments where Muslims can feel comfortable talking about faith in a mental health context
• Reflect upon how Muslim practitioners might create conditions or environments where Muslims can feel comfortable talking about mental health problems in a faith context