Chair of Sharing Voices, Alyas Karmani, recently gave a presentation at Warwick University.
The presentation was about young peoples mental health, and was very well received.
The following is an excerpt of the feedback that was received.
Excellent approach in terms of de-stigmatizing mental health, elaborating on how the climate of MH requires change, how previous generations’ attitudes towards mental health are not easy to reverse (so it is upon our generation to make the changes, if we want to see a difference).
Provided an open environment for the discussion of different MH issues.
The issues brought up are likely to have touched on something sensitive for many in the room. He stated how there is little support in the Islamic communities across the country that tackle MH, and highlighted how there is a need for a lot more to be done (in this was an encouragement to our generation to step up and make changes). It would have been good to have more advice on the support that is available outside of the room, the means within our religion that provide sanctity for you, or the ways in which we can make MH discussions more approachable (even if by a little) within our families.
And to end with a very clear encouragement – that we are on the right track, that our trials come and go, and that we have Allah to fall back on in good and bad, or something on the lines of this, to give security/assurance to those leaving the room, particularly those that may have felt triggered by anything brought up.
Personally I feel he was the best speaker we’ve had. He wasn’t judgemental at all and wasn’t condescending one bit about mental health and people who suffers from it. I really appreciated that he spoke about his own experience.
It was really refreshing to hear about mental health from someone who is older than us.
I felt that he answered all questions very well and actually taught us ways to tackles difficult situations.