Minister impressed with mental health and food poverty support in Greater Manchester
Jewish Action for Mental Health and partners discussed the £93,900 Faith New Deal Pilot Fund project
MEETING CHARITIES: Jonny Wineberg, Dr David Marshall, Anne-Marie Marshall, Shakar Hussain, Baroness Jane Scott, Kate Lurie, Shabnam Hussain, Sukhbir Singh
The Government's minister for Faith and Communities met recently with a group of organisations working hard to help people in Greater Manchester facing food poverty and mental health issues.
Jewish Action for Mental Health (JAMH) and four of their six partner organisations met with the Minister for Faith, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, on Thursday afternoon. The meeting looked at the results from their £93,900 Faith New Deal Pilot Fund project and discussed its implications.
Baroness Scott was hugely impressed with the work undertaken and said: “I didn’t realise the breadth of what had been done with the small amount of money we gave you and the holistic nature of the project, working together across communities.”
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She was keen to receive more information on what had been achieved through the project so that she could discuss with Government colleagues how such work could be supported in future and replicated elsewhere.
Jonny Wineberg, trustee of JAMH who also has the role of project officer, said: “We are immensely proud of what we have achieved here, exceeding the targets we agreed, benefiting thousands of people facing both food poverty and mental health issues. We emphasised to Baroness Scott the fact that poverty is the single biggest driver of ill health, and that the relationship is bi-directional in that poverty causes ill health, and ill health causes poverty.
Anxiety and depression are 50 per cent more prevalent in the most deprived 10th of the country so, in Greater Manchester, that means 25 per cent of households. Also the fact that children living in low-income households are more than three times as likely to have a mental health condition than those in high-income households.”
Dr David Marshall, Chair of Neshomo, said: “We were able to explain our befriending, social prescribing and link work with hospitals to the Baroness and she clearly understood both its importance and impact. We are hopeful that she will, as she indicated, take back some of what she has heard to colleagues across departments so that they can support this as best practice both for ourselves and elsewhere.”
Shabnam Hussain, project manager at charity Rainbow Surprise, who hosted the meeting at their community shop, said: “Baroness Scott met with our women’s health and wellbeing group before the discussions with the partners. It was so good that she was down to earth and able to laugh with our ladies and understood the issues they were bringing up and the benefits of the work.”
Sukhbir Singh, Chair of Manchester Sikh Foundation, said: “This is the first time the Sikh community in Greater Manchester have received funding for work around mental health and the impact has been very significant and positive for the community. We hope to be able to continue and extend this support, subject to funding, in the future.”
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Kate Lurie, project manager at JAMH, said: “We were delighted to show Baroness Scott the fantastic outcomes of this project and what can be achieved by working together with partners both within and outside the Jewish community.”
The project partners also include Greater Manchester Neshomo, L’Chaim Foodbank, Rainbow Surprise, Manchester Sikh Foundation (also known as Feed My City), Salford Community and Voluntary Services, and Salford Foodshare Network.
Outcomes from the project so far include 100 per cent satisfaction with mental health support received; 96 per cent saying that support had met their specific faith/cultural needs; 100 per cent that access to a culturally sensitive service was of added benefit compared to mainstream services; 86 per cent that support helped reduced their social isolation; and 87 per cent that support had reduced fear of addressing their mental health. 57.7 per cent of respondents reported reduced need to seek help from the NHS, whilst only 5.1 per cent reported increased need.
Clients’ average confidence of making positive choices about their life rose from 4.71 before support to 7.40 after, a 2.7 point jump. Average rating of mood rose from 3.33 before support to 7.05 after, a 3.7 point jump.
Comments from beneficiaries included:
• I sometimes feel misunderstood by mainstream services and it’s hard for me to explain myself, it makes things more stressful. When Neshomo are involved, I feel more relaxed.
• By using a Jewish service, they are already aware of some of the issues that the religion faces, the laws and the way most think as well as many people's upbringing. I do not have to waste time in explaining certain aspects of my belief. Also, I am always scared that non-Jewish sensitive services would be more judgmental due to not fully understanding where I come from.
• Greater confidence in appropriateness of therapist for cultural needs, faster build up of rapport resulting in faster progress towards goal.
• I look at things more positively and I’m smiling more, my relationship with my family has been so much better. I can deal with situation without becoming upset and angry.
• My counsellor was able to empathise fully with any scenarios/issues I had that involved cultural background and/or social religious matters. Nothing had to be explained and I could use words or phrases and express cultural sentiments automatically without tempering these. This has always been an issue in the past and I was very aware that I was totally relaxed about this matter, during these important sessions.
• Because of coming to ladies classes and joining Rainbow Surprise I have started a course to become a fitness instructor myself so I can give back to the community.
Submitted by Jonny Wineberg
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