Sukoon translates across Arabic and Urdu as meaning peace and respite. The group works on collaborative projects such as quilts and mosaics and each group member works on a piece that projects a personal message of hope and recovery
Sukoon translates across Arabic and Urdu as meaning peace and respite. The group works on collaborative projects such as quilts and mosaics and each group member works on a piece that projects a personal message of hope and recovery.
The group takes place in an acute inpatient mental health ward and brings in a community development worker from the BME community to work alongside existing OT staff. The group is led by OT Faten El-Khatib who is herself an Arabic speaker from the Lebanon. The group is open to all but has the effect of particularly appealing to many men and women from a BME background who are over represented on the ward population compared to the Sheffield population as a whole. The group demonstrates the activity rooms are safe places that support recovery and offer peer to peer support.
BME community Development workers co-facilitate the group and are able to inreach into otherwise hard to reach populations, particularly Asian women. BME CDW’s also provide a pathway from the ward to the community for the same people.
Service users decide the next project and have spoken at events where the resulting work has been framed and presented to buildings in the trust.
Would have promoted the group more as it has been of great benefit to service users from BME backgrounds and is a success story to build on in other parts of the trust
We have looked at ways of implementing this in the community as a pathway but finding funding for a suitable venue has been an issue.
The group runs over the summer when Faten goes on a 5 week break to her homeland. The group has another co-facilitator from a wide pool of available OT staff so all staff are familiar with the groups routines and values.
Msc Thesis by a public social policy student 2010
Articles in the trust magazine and in Occupational Therapy News
