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Written question asked by Ashok Kumar (Labour) on Monday, 8 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 December 2008. It was answered by Phil Hope (Labour) on Wednesday, 17 December 2008 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Mental Health Services: Ethnic Groups

Question
(2) what steps his Department is taking to address the stigma attached to mental health problems in the Asian community.
Answer

The Department's National Institute for Health Research is not currently funding research of this kind. The 2002 survey of Ethnic Minority Psychiatric Illness Rates in the Community (EMPIRIC) provided estimates of the prevalence of common mental disorders and psychosis, information on social support and information on access to services. Estimates are provided for Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library and is on the Department's website at:"http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/DH_4005698."The Department's Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care programme (DRE) is helping to raise awareness among black and minority ethnic communities of mental health issues and to develop services more sensitive to communities' particular needs. It is also collaborating with Shift, the Department's five-year campaign addressing stigma and mental health.In November 2008 Shift launched the award-winning short film 'Open Secrets', about the stigma surrounding mental illness in the Asian community. The film has been dubbed into Gujarati and Hindi. 'Open Secrets' is intended to be used by DRE's network of community development workers and as a tool to influence Asian media, health and social care organisations and policymakers. Shift and DRE will promote the film at regional and local screenings in community and health and social care contexts to raise awareness and promote discussion. The film will be available on the internet from 1 April 2009.Shift has also commissioned the consultancy Ethnic Communications to carry out a qualitative research project looking at how mental health stories are portrayed in the South Asian media. This work will be published at the DRE national conference in March 2009.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
485 c911-2W; 242379
Session
2008-09
Related items
Deposited Paper DEP2008-3141
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects
Ethnic groups Mental health services
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk