Considering faith
Video: Faith-based leaders and the importance of partnerships
With Baldev Mutta (CEO, Punjabi Community Health Services)
I think it's important to work with faith-based leaders. And the rationale is that we had a research study done by the Region of Peel and, in that study, it was found that close to 80% of the Region of Peel's population has some belief in a faith. Either they believe in Islam or they believe in Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism. And I believe that if we took a survey of the greater Toronto area and the recent arrivals, especially the immigrants and refugees, they would say strongly they have some kind of a connection to their faith. In order for us to enhance our ability to deliver services, it's important to seek the buy-in from the faith leaders because that's where the newer settled immigrants and refugees go to. So if there is a problem, they go to their leaders in their faith and they say, “I am experiencing this problem,” or “My children are not listening,” or “I am not getting a job.” So that's the first gateway to accessing services. It's that religious part or it's that faith-based part. So in my opinion, I think that the organizations, social service organizations, should have a much closer interaction with faith-based leaders and institutions so that there can be a partnership. They can refer to us, we can refer back to them. And that there is much more of a partnership between the faith-based leaders and institutions and social service organizations.
Religion and faith are an important part of many immigrants' and refugees' lives. While a quarter of Canadian-born individuals are not affiliated with a religion, among recent immigrants only 19.5% report no affiliation with a religion (Statistics Canada, 2013).
Although religious affiliation in Canada is declining, immigrants tend to have higher levels of religiosity than the Canadian-born population (Angus Reid Institute, 2018; Clark & Schellenberg, 2006). In addition, religion may be more important for some groups than others. However, there are existing variations based on immigration groups. For example, immigrants from South Asia and South-East Asia are more likely to report being religious than Canadian-born individuals, while fewer immigrants from East Asia and Western Europe report being religious than Canadian-born individuals (Clark & Schellenberg, 2006).
It may be helpful to consider partnerships that include faith leaders when working with individuals and groups for whom religion is important. Partnering with religious and faith leaders can help establish connections with hard-to-reach immigrant and refugee communities. Places of worship are trusted, easily accessible and often prominent in the lives of immigrant and refugee groups (Chaze et al., 2015; Williams et al., 2014).
Places of worship can provide protective spaces for people living with mental health problems and illnesses as they are seen as sacred and offer physical, social and spiritual/emotional support (Agyekum & Newbold, 2016; Griffith et al., 2016; Agyekum et al, 2018; Williams et al., 2014).
While many spiritual leaders are experienced in supporting people through spiritual and life issues, few are trained to recognize and deal with mental health problems and illnesses (Griffith et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2008). Further, mental health may not be seen as a priority among immigrants and refugees. Partnerships with faith leaders and staff may require mental health promotion and psychoeducation, flexibility and accommodation for schedules, and resources on places of worship (2008; Williams et al., 2014) (American Psychiatric Association Foundation, 2018).
Partnerships between settlement and health care providers and faith leaders increase faith leaders' awareness of the complexity of issues that immigrants and refugees face (Janzen et al., 2016; Stobbe & Janzen, 2014).
Many religious denominations have budgets and positions within their organizations to encourage responsiveness to immigrants and/or refugees (Janzen et al., 2016; Stobbe & Janzen, 2014). This offers opportunities for proactive partnerships, which can provide settlement, social service and health care providers with access to a potential key pathway for immigrant and refugee mental health care. In addition, these partnerships can support and educate faith leaders and provide better services for immigrants and refugees (Janzen et al., 2016).
Engaging faith leaders
Video: Building bridges for inclusive care in Peel
We gathered here today with groups from various faith communities and various service care providers to talk about mental illness and how to bridge the gap between faith communities and service providers because right now what we see is that there's a kind of a Great Divide. Can we, as service providers, get into the faith-based places and start delivering some services to go to the mental health and addiction clients? So what are the areas that we can develop on and understand the different faith communities better so we can serve a larger population and do it in a way that's sensitive? Often we are stuck in our individual places and we don't connect with each other. Separated we can't do a lot of supporting, but together we can form that wonderful support for them and their families and create, as one of the speakers said the appeal that we hope for. We are very diverse in Peel Region and that means we need to reach out to different communities and find out how we could get to the members of their communities and help them out when it comes to mental health issues. And we know from experience that sometimes members of the Mental Health Committee haven't always had a very positive view of the role of faith in a person's life, but thankfully those attitudes are really changing and it's great to see the fruit of that inclusiveness and openness. The issue that we confront and that our service providers have faced, you know leaders of the faith community, issues that are complex, so no one group can solve or know those issues without connecting and networking and working with, you know, the other. The Peel Service Collaborative identified the value of the faith community and the need for cooperation and recognition across that board, and to me that was an innovation. I've been in the Christian ministry for 42 years and I'd never heard of anything like that before. So both sides acknowledge some of the shortcomings and I think from now on they will build on how to overcome the shortcomings. How was the morning? Being around the table with faith leaders, learning from them, I'm getting to hear their perspectives. You know, I hear this from clients, but it was really, it was great to hear it from them directly. It really gave me one of the first opportunities I've had to hear directly from faith leaders about the experiences they're having in the community around stigma, around mental health, around addictions. I'm excited that the people started to realize that talking about mental health is not shameful. We have finally been able to organize an event of this caliber, of the stature, at a faith-based organization. There is great hope, therefore, for breaking down taboos of this kind in our community. I'm excited about lots of things that came out of this event and the first initial discourse, changing the language, changing service delivery, connecting clients to not-shaming services, getting fed, forming mentorships, including the voices of culture and different voices. We're coming from different perspectives. We're doing the same kind of work in terms of supporting people in their life journey, and whether it's from a faith perspective or a service provider perspective, we're kind of on the same team. And it would be awesome to be able to work together more effectively. We have broken the barriers among different religious and cultural communities to understand what other faith groups think about and where we can cooperate together. Recognizing that tension also allows for transformation and that is where we are headed in Peel. We are wanting to transform health for our children and youth collectively, where no child falls through the cracks, where no youth goes unsupported, no matter what aspect of diversity they bring. It really boggled my mind to see the differences in the diversity that were present in this room and all talking together. The world tells us that we can't do that, the world tells us that we are divided and that we can only be divided and that we can't come together, but events such as this it tells you we can come together. If we care enough about the people that we all are associated with and love, we can come together. I think it's that so many people want to be part of this journey and so many people came out today and want to continue to be part of this journey, which is great. What I do hope comes from this event is that it'll be ongoing dialogue and discussion with faith providers and service providers, so that we can have dialogue around providing best services for youth and children experiencing mental health (problems). Each one of us has a collective responsibility for creating the kind of Peel Region that we would like to see, where inclusion becomes a reality, where health is complete health for all involved, mental health included.
Conferences provide opportunities for these conversations and partnerships to be formed and discussed among faith leaders, community members and health professionals.