A Calgary non-profit has launched a brand new marketing campaign to deal with the rising want for mental-health assist for these within the South Asian neighborhood.
“The South Asian neighborhood is struggling in silence and it is harming our neighborhood,” stated Nina Saini, government director of Punjabi Group Well being Companies (PCHS).
“We actually want to extend conversations to ensure that folks to be trustworthy about how they’re actually.”
PCHS put out a brand new video on Tuesday referred to as “How Are You Actually?” to just do that.
The targets are to start out an open dialog and to lower the stigma round getting mental-health assist, particularly within the South Asian neighborhood, the place mental-health points could be seen as taboo.
Dr. Gaganjot Sandhu is a household doctor within the coronary heart of Calgary’s South Asian neighborhood.
“Indian communities have a robust sense of neighborhood and sometimes we flip to one another for assist and assist,” she stated.
“Western assist programs would possibly make them really feel alienated and won’t deal with their issues from a lens that they are used to, from a cultural lens. So, having that illustration actually issues.”
Sandhu says that is why she typically refers her shoppers to PCHS, the place counsellors are all South Asian and might converse varied languages together with Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English.
Tania Bhullar is a mental-health counsellor at PCHS and says as quickly as she speaks the individual’s language, they immediately really feel extra snug.
“They’re capable of open up about their lives they usually belief you since you perceive what it looks like. I am an immigrant myself so, I do know the challenges,” she stated.
The non-profit provides one-on-one counselling within the areas of psychological well being, habit, household enhancement and household violence.
Virtually all of the counselling is free.
Saini says PCHS has seen a rise in demand since 2020, however hopes to succeed in much more folks with this marketing campaign.
“One out of 10 Calgarians are South Asian, so we all know because the inhabitants will increase, the demand will increase, and as we work in the direction of extra preventative choices, we all know there will be extra folks looking for assist,” she stated.
The video will likely be adopted up by mental-health initiatives and workshops all year long to additional the dialog.
PCHS acquired $20,000 by the Bell Let’s Discuss Group Fund for the marketing campaign.Â
