Islamic Community Worker Training Program for the Management of Depression

Abstract

Objective: To prepare Islamic background bilingual community workers to provide culture and gender appropriate support to women with depression. Method: An education program was developed in consultation with Islamic community leaders. Results: With the support and cooperation from the Islamic community, an education program designed to increase community workers' knowledge and skills to provide gender specific support to women with depression and/or postnatal depression and to work collaboratively with mental health professionals was successfully implemented. Presentation of clinical group projects by the participants indicated that they were able to apply the new knowledge and skills to provide appropriate support to women with depression or postnatal depression in their catchment area. Feedback from participants on strengths and limitations of the course provided suggestions for further course development. Conclusions: Improvement in the health of multicultural Australia at a time when intervention can be less extreme and less expensive can be achieved by collaboration between community groups, non-government and government sectors.