The rise of mental health issues in Muslim communities is a concern that is constantly raised in the course of our health work.

During our work in diabetes, cardio-vascular disease and perinatal mortality, nurses and doctors have constantly raised depression as an issue among their Muslim patients. There is a recognition that not enough is being done to tackle this in terms of education for patients and practitioners.

A Bangladeshi mother with three children recently described to us the difficulty of being with a husband who suffers from depression. She is the sole wage earner, living in a deprived area of London. She has some family support but her husband refuses to accept he needs any type of therapeutic help. There are also cultural taboos surrounding mental health, which she has to contend with. This Bangladeshi mother told us how her story was repeated a number of time across the estate she lived in.

A report released by NHS London towards the end of 2011 stated that about 8,000 people from BME groups have dementia and this is projected to nearly double over 12 years in areas such as Tower Hamlets and Brent where there are significant Muslim populations. According to the report obesity and diabetes mellitus are some of the risk factors in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This is of extra concern for some minority groups where diabetes rates are already 6 times higher among Asian communities compared to the white population. As a result London NHS recommends that local dementia services should also cover equalities issues including the extent to which they meet the needs of people from BME groups with dementia.

As with all our health work, resources are needed that widen the language around mental health so that the vocabulary that is used makes sense to patients and their families. This may well involve using the language of faith but also using film, music, or art to create a more intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually relevant education campaign. And, as in our other work, practitioners and communities have to contribute in the making of these resources if deep change is to take place.

There is also an economic argument as the cost of mental health problems will rise dramatically across a number of conditions over the next decade or so. A report by the King’s Fund in 2008, showed the costs of mental health problems in 2007 and what they would be in 2026 in England. For dementia, for example, the cost in 2007 was £14.9 billion predicted to rise to £34.8 billion in 2026. A 2012 report by the LSE and its Personal Services Research Unit, states “whether such as increase would be widely seen as affordable”.

This same LSE report analysed the economic payoffs of a range of interventions in the area of mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention. The report concludes that the payoffs from interventions can be spread over many years. Most obviously this is the case for programmes dealing with childhood mental health problems, which in the absence of intervention have a strong tendency to persist throughout childhood and adolescence into adult life. However, the overall scale of economic payoffs from these interventions is generally such that their costs are fully recovered within a relatively short period of time. The report also states that many interventions are very low cost and a small shift in the balance of expenditure from treatment to prevention would have greater benefit in both health and monetary terms.

The producers of the film are calling it Bollywood with a London, urban vibe. This film may not have scenes involving running around trees with the Himalayas or the Alps as a backdrop, but a view of the London Eye and Big Ben is equally enticing.

As part of the Alchemy Festival organized by the Southbank Centre, a group of young Muslim women who took part in our I Can Be She project last year, have been given the opportunity to be involved in the making of the film. The screening will take place on Sunday April 22^nd, in the Royal Festival Hall at 4.30pm, followed by the classic Mughal-E-Azim, and all for free.

We first met this group of young women and Ayan, their mentor, at an exhibition we ran last year as part of the 100-year anniversary of International Women’s Day. The idea was to challenge stereotypes surrounding Muslim women through film, photography, radio, and fine art. It was an opportunity to hear the stories of a diverse range of Muslim women on their own terms and in their words.

After the exhibition we were approached by Ayan to run workshops with her young women in film, photography, fine art, and radio. We then staged an exhibition of the work produced in these workshops. We were fortunate to have partners such as the BBC and the British Film Institute help with the workshops and the latter partner introduced us to the Southbank Centre.

This journey started with a young Somali woman who said to us: “I know Muslim women are doing great things, I just never get to hear about them.” It led us to launch I Can Be She, and over a year later, a group of young Muslim women are helping to create a Bollywood film as part of a major London festival. As I write this these young women are filming nearly 100 people in a scene on the roof terrace of the Southbank Centre.

These young women are continuing in the long tradition of Muslim women who have pioneered change in society. They are part of a heritage and history of brave women who challenge stereotypes and continue to remain the backbone of their families and communities.

We have just returned from Paris where we are beginning to work with organisations on the ground who are tackling social issues affecting Muslim communities. 

Over the past few years Maslaha has worked across a number of fields including health, education, women in Islam, and historical and artistic exhibitions exploring the trade in ideas across cities and time.

We’ve realised quite quickly that there is an ‘approach’, a way or pattern of working which we repeat across all these varied areas. These are a set of principles which are not rigid but instead allow the imagination to find new solutions for social issues in different localities. 

As much of our work is online we have also seen our existing resources being used in a number of different countries. The work may start in east London or Birmingham but the approach can then travel. A vital part of the process, and a key to success, is ensuring that that there is local buy-in and community ownership. So as with our health work we actually have patients and health practitioners, and local imams contributing to the production of the resources.

A grant provided by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has now enabled us to codify this approach so that it can be shared and used by other organisations and communities.

The social, cultural and political setting of France is obviously very different to the UK and will provide a unique set of challenges for us. However a number a number of community organisations and individuals based in Paris are already helping us to think through some of these challenges and are excited about how Maslaha might work in France. 

Over the course of the next year or so we will be recording our progress and producing a tangible product that reflects Maslaha’s DNA. 

We have just finished running workshops on social entrepreneurship in Oman for the Muscat Youth Summit. Using Maslaha as an example of how to set up and develop a social enterprise, we worked with 34 young people from a number of different countries including Holland, Yemen, Lebanon, Oman, the UK, the US, Pakistan, Italy, France, and India.

Areas we covered included on how to deliver a good pitch- being passionate, concise, and persuasive enough to convince people to follow you in putting your vision into action. We also looked at developing a certain attitude of mind which would enable you to address social issues through practical and creative means.

These young people were not only hungry to learn new skills that would allow them to be more entrepreneurial but they were also deeply committed to tackling certain social issues including drug addiction, projects that empowered women, and creating a greater understanding between the generations.

Any good entrepreneur should always be open to new forms of learning and these young people were certainly willing to take on board new ideas and new ways of thinking. There were no complaints and in fact a good deal of enthusiasm when we asked the class to run through some kung fu techniques as a way of beginning to understand how you tackle social issues.

There is immense support from Brand Oman to ensure that the potential of these young people is recognised. The organisation is actively looking to introduce new ideas that can help to develop a more entrepreneurial and creative ecosystem in Oman.