*Unsure of how to support your communities mental health and wellbeing? We can help.*

Our recent research has demonstrated that Imams and Community Leaders within the UK feel unequipped and unqualified to effectively manage the general mental health difficulties of their community. Many have also stated that they feel unable to provide comfort and actionable advice which provides people with a sense of direction and support.

Community members have also stated that they have been left without positive acknowledgement and with no guidance on what is best for them and their situation when they have approached their Imams and Community Leaders for support in the past.

As an Imam or Community Leader, you have a key responsibility to uplift and safeguard the wellbeing of your community members, particularly when they approach and seek your support. This involves a duty for early intervention alongside a moral and ethical duty to ensure your community spaces are safe, judgement-free and meaningful for people to attend. It is through you that community members will be empowered with the courage to seek professional support for their mental health and wellbeing via appropriate and safe avenues, and it is through you that these people will build a better connection to their faith, themselves, and one another.

You will learn:

• The definition of mental health and wellbeing from a secular and a faith-based perspective
  Misconceptions, language and stigma around mental health and wellbeing
• What good and bad mental health and wellbeing looks like
• Common mental health problems and how they present in the Muslim community, focussing on issues such as Depression, Anxiety, Religious OCD, Self-Harm, Suicide and Stress
• Common triggers of some mental health problems and how they transpire in the Muslim community, i.e. showing up as trauma, abuse, relationship breakdowns, difficult family dynamics and unhealthy individual addictions
• How Islam can be used to navigate mental health issues- this will be building on your assumed and existing knowledge of Islamic principles and will be more focused on making this knowledge more accessible to your community members
• Basic counselling skills to provide support at the first point of contact to ensure a safe environment
• How to effectively support your community using a 5-step planning tool (SMART goal) and how to practically implement this
• Understanding boundaries in providing support, where to signpost and what resources you can offer to those struggling

Additionally:

• Inspirited Minds will create a referral pathway to our counselling service where you can refer your community members to if they need support.
• You will receive our support for up to 1 year after the training whereby you will get prioritised access to our workshop facilitators and speakers should you want to host an event, or workshop for your community which we can also help plan.
• You will be sent resources to distribute to your community and you will have our support to create and implement further SMART goals arranged via virtual meetings that are suitable for both parties.

Inspirited Minds is the UK's largest Muslim mental health charity that has pioneered making mental health more accessible to minority communities. We have created the UK's first Muslim mental health resources, workshops, trainings and much more, and we have been creating conversations, providing support and raising awareness since 2014.

Our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Inspiritedminds