Conference paper
PIONEERING AN INNOVATIVE INTERVENTION TO REDUCE MENTAL HEALTH RELATED STIGMA IN MUSLIM COMMUNITIES: A PROTOCOL
Ahmed Hankir
; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Melissa Abi Rached
; University of Roehampton, London, UK
Rashid Zaman
; Centre for Mental Health Research in association with University of Cambridge (CMHR-CU), Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Despite the prevalence of mental health related stigma in Muslim communities, there are only a limited number of intervention
studies reported in the literature. Digital interventions (i.e., YouTube clips, videos) are relatively cheap, highly accessible and easily
disseminated and are increasingly being used to improve mental health literacy and reduce mental health related stigma. However ,
as far as the authors are aware, there are no stigma reduction programmes targeting Muslim communities that leverage digital
interventions reported in the literature. This paper outlines a protocol for a digital intervention to challenge mental health related
stigma in Muslim communities. The proposed intervention will be a 5 to 10-minute YouTube clip/video the active ingredients of
which will be: [1] an interview with a Muslim expert by lived/living experience, [2] an Imam (Muslim faith leader) and [3] a
psychiatrist. We will recruit members of Muslim communities living in Muslim minority countries in the Global North (United
Kingdom, Unites States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to participate in the study (inclusion criteria: adults a ged
18 years and over, Muslim background). The study will be comprised of two groups: an active group that will be exposed to the
Muslim faith appropriate digital intervention and a control group that will be exposed to a digital intervention that is not Mu slim
faith appropriate. We will administer validated psychometric stigma scales on participants in both groups before and after expo sure
to the interventions. We hypothesize that viewing an anti-stigma clip/video that is Islamic faith appropriate will be associate d with
greater reductions in mental health related stigma in members of Muslim communities compared to viewing an anti-stigma clip/video
that is not Islamic faith appropriate.
Keywords
stigma; mental health; digital interventions; Muslim community
Hrčak ID:
270216
URI
Publication date:
4.12.2021.
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