Kirklees team talk psychosis in local mosque
North Kirklees Insight team recently visited Dawatal Islam Mosque in Batley to speak to women about mental health issues.
The insight team plays a vital role in helping people at the early stage of psychosis to fulfil their potential and live well within their community, keeping care close to home. Staff help people experiencing their first episode of psychosis – loss of touch with reality, loss of motivation, experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, delusional ideas, drop in social functioning – who are new to mental health services. North Kirklees insight team recently celebrated its first birthday as one of the top performing services in the country.
The session in the mosque was delivered by the female members of staff from the Insight team with support from the equality and engagement team. Staff spoke about psychosis, how to spot signs and get help. The event was well attended by women from across the local community.
Recovery worker Habib Dadhiwala said: “Many Muslim service users and carers turn to their faith and spiritual healers for help and assistance when dealing with serious mental health conditions. Being at the mosque was a great opportunity for local women to gain a better understanding of mental health issues and how treatments can work together with a person’s faith and spirituality. This acknowledgement is very important, as it breaks down the stigma of mental health and by holding these types of events we can help, sign-post and hopefully intervene early.”
Following on from the event the insight team plan to set up a women’s support group in this in Batley.
Habib said: “We would like to give a big thanks to the mosque management team, especially the chairman Suleman Aswat for approaching us and asking for this session to be delivered at the mosque. I have been working at the insight team for 10 years now and we have done various different awareness sessions in schools, colleges and youth centres but this is the first time we have been able to deliver one in a mosque. It was a pleasure to be able to engage with the community during this event. By providing person centred care and working in partnership with faith organisations we can make it easier for people to accept help and at the same time break down barriers.”
