by Amanda Godes, General Contributor Kuwait Aid Network (KAN) is a non-profit organization determined to alleviate poverty and malnutrition. Part of KAN’s new mental health initiative is a mental wellbeing survey for citizens and residents of Kuwait aimed at determining the current state of wellbeing among the general population. IntroductionIn recent years, Kuwait has begun to make strides in supporting the mental wellbeing of its citizens. For example, in 2019, the Kuwait Government put forth the country’s first ‘Mental Health Law’, aiming to protect individuals with mental health issues (Al Hammad & McKenzie, 2019). Following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing, mental health supports in Kuwait have expanded. These supports include a new mental health hotline created by the Kuwait Center for Mental Health, a national self-harm prevention campaign, and an increase in remote and specialized psychiatric care (World Health Organization, 2022). However, demonstrated through the demand for mental health supports during COVID-19, there is a pressing need for psychological support services. Even with expansion of services, to normalize mental health care and reach the people who need it most in Kuwait, the stigma attached to mental health issues must be reduced. What does Kuwait Aid Network do?Kuwait Aid Network (KAN) is a non-profit organization determined to alleviate poverty and malnutrition in Kuwait. KAN’s initiatives include Food Aid, a food security program aimed at providing food supplies to the most vulnerable communities and individuals who struggle with food insecurity. Project Mary – another KAN initiative – supports training sessions for migrant workers in Kuwait that teach them legal and labour rights and offer them training programs that teach them how to sew, cook, and learn Arabic language. A more recent part of KAN’s mission is their Mental Health Program created for advocating, raising awareness, and addressing the link between food poverty and mental health. KAN Mental Wellbeing SurveyIn addition to crisis intervention training workshops facilitated by KAN through their Mental Health Program, the organization wanted to distribute a survey aimed at determining the current state of mental wellbeing among Kuwait citizens and residents. Recent research on the mental wellbeing of individuals in Kuwait has focused on certain groups, such as healthcare students and professionals (Alsairafi et al., 2021), or involved interviewing mental health service providers and clients (Khullar, 2017). What seems to be lacking is data on the status of mental wellbeing directly from the general population of Kuwait, not necessarily individuals who use or administer mental health or other health-related services. The current research by KAN aims to fill this gap by determining the state of mental wellbeing among the general population of Kuwait, as well as determine at risk groups, and any relevant themes. This survey will go beyond mental illness in that we are looking at general mental wellbeing, including life satisfaction and feelings of belonging to their local community. The survey questionnaire has been constructed using questions from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey (2021), Canadian Social Survey (2022), and Mental Health and Access to Care Survey (2022). Included in the questionnaire are questions pertaining to life satisfaction, general life stress, sense of belonging to one’s local community, feelings of sadness, emptiness, or disinterest, and general/social anxieties. Application of Current ResearchThese results will provide organizations, including non-profit organizations like KAN, with relevant information on the current state of mental wellbeing among Kuwait’s citizens and residents. This may inform important points of focus for mental health strategies and provide a reference data set for future strategic planning. Find out more!If you have any questions related to KAN’s initiatives or the Kuwait Mental Wellbeing study, please reach out to [email protected]. Amanda is an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph and a Research Coordinator for the Kuwait Aid Network. Are you interested in submitting a post to GetPsyched? Make sure you fill out our submission form and send it back to us so we can showcase your ideas! Edited by Nida Ansari. References
Al Hammad, L. & McKenzie, M. (2019, November). Dispelling the Taboo: Kuwait’s First Mental Health Law. Al Tamimi & Co.https://www.tamimi.com/law-update-articles/dispelling-the-taboo-kuwaits-first-mental-health-law/ Alsairafi, Z., Naser, A. Y., Alsaleh, F. M., Awad, A., & Jalal, Z. (2021). Mental Health Status of Healthcare Professionals and Students of Health Sciences Faculties in Kuwait during the COVID-19 Pandemic. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4),2203 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042203 Khullar, N. (2017). It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world: a critical analysis of the perceptions and lived experiences of mental health and illness in Kuwait. [Master’s thesis, Trent University]. The Author. Kuwait launches novel initiatives to improve access to mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2022). World Health Organization. Retrieved July 17, 2022 from https://www.emro.who.int/mnh/news/kuwait-launches-novel-initiatives-to-improve-access-to-mental-health-care-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html Statistics Canada. (2021). Canadian Community Health Survey. Surveys and statistical programs. https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3Instr.pl?Function=assembleInstr&a=1&&lang=en&Item_Id=1293153 Statistics Canada. (2022). Canadian Social Survey. Surveys and statistical programs. https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvInstrumentList&Id=1329544 Statistics Canada. (2022). Mental Health and Access to Care Survey. Surveys and statistical programs. https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/statistical-programs/instrument/5015_Q2_V1
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