Unfortunately, members of the Black, Brown and Asian communities experienced worse mental health outcomes than their white counterparts – culturally appropriate care is a way of improving the outcomes for those communities. Culturally appropriate and competent care in approach to healthcare that understands the importance of embedding the someone’s individual cultural identity and heritage into support framework. Culturally competent support services understand the cultural nuances (e.g. language, religion and regional traditions) experienced by minoritized individuals.
Intercultural Support Services
Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN) – BAATN is the home of the largest community of counsellors and psychotherapists of Black, African, Asian and Caribbean Heritage in the UK
Enfield Saheli – Enfield Saheli offers support and advice to women in Enfield and neighbouring London boroughs. The charity is run by women for women, with special emphasis on support for women of all ethnicities. Enfield Saheli provides multi-lingual and culturally appropriate counselling, weekly drop in sessions and monthly thematic advocacy and awareness session. Through their Emotional Wellbeing Project, they provide advocacy, advice and support to Black women experiencing emotional distress. Enfield Saheli provide linguistic and culturally appropriate counselling in Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali, Turkish, Hindi Punjabi and English.
Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre – Nafsiyat is an intercultural therapy centre committed to providing effective and accessible psychotherapy and counselling to services to people from diverse religious, cultural and ethnic communities in London. They provide short term intercultural therapy in over 20 languages via referral to individual, groups and couples. The languages are: Amharic, Arabic, Balochi, Bengali, Cantonese, English, Farsi, Ga, Hindi, Italian, Krobo, Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Sylheti, Tigre, Tigrinya, Turkish, Twi, Urdu and Yoruba.
Black Mental Health & Support Services
IRIE Mind - IRIE Mind is a mental health initiative, run by and for the African-Caribbean community in Hackney. Led by Mind in City, IRIE Mind is both an awareness raising and service delivery organisation. They have adult and young people specific services with service ranging from self-care workshops, managing emotions, PIP applications and supports groups for hearing voices.
The Empowerment Group - The Empowerment Group supports people of Black African and Caribbean heritage aged 18 and over in the UK facing mental health challenges. They provide free and heavily subsidised 1:1 culturally appropriate therapy.
Black River Counselling - The Black River counselling is a free online service supporting people of Black African/African-Caribbean heritage. It provides up to eight (8) weeks of 50-minute online counselling to Lambeth adults. If you are a key worker, a young adult (aged 18+), an elder or someone who needs to talk, please get in touch.
The Black Wellbeing Collective - The Black Wellbeing Collective is a mental health and wellbeing service that prioritises the lived experiences of the Black community to heal from racial trauma, racial bias, racism and discrimination, operating as a digital platform for collective healing. They provide services ranges from self-care talks, creative workshops, healing circles and holistic recovery services.
Greenwich Mind: African and African-Caribbean Counselling – The African and Africa-Caribbean Counselling service is for adults living in Greenwich who have a cultural background or identify as being African, African-Caribbean or of Mixed Heritage, and would prefer to talk to a counsellor who reflects their ethnicity and cultural background.
Asian Mental Health & Support Services
Asian Family Counselling Service – The Asian Family Counselling Service provides low-cost confidential counselling for Asian couples and families facing stress.
Barnet Asian Women’s Association (BAWA) – BAWA is a charity that supports Asian women living in the borough of Barnet. They provide a range of service including a helpline, drop-in sessions, support groups and counselling.
Kanlungan Filipino Consortium – Kanlungan provides psychosocial support and befriending counselling and group activities for Filipino migrants and other ESEA migrants who are experiencing distress such as anxiety, loneliness, isolation and grief.
South Asian Therapists – South Asian Therapists are a directory of culturally competent South Asian therapists. The directory features therapists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nepal.
South Asian Community Mental Health Service (AMARDEEP) – AMARDEEP is a community-based assessment, treatment and advice service people in the South Asian community living in the London Borough of Lambeth. They support individual’s aged 18-65 who have a range of mental health and complex social care problems.
Arabic Support Services
Al-Hasaniya Moroccan Women’s Centre - Al-Hasaniya Moroccan Women’s Centre is an all-female staff group that serves the health, welfare, educational and cultural needs of Moroccan and Arabic-speaking women in Kensington & Chelsea and London-wide. Through their Mental Health Project, they offer individual support for Arabic-speaking women who suffer from enduring mental health problems and live in the Royal borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
Muslim Youth Helpline (MYH) – MYH is a free and confidential listening service that provide culturally sensitive support for practicing individuals.
Orchestra Health – is a luxury mental health service tailored to the specific needs of Arabic people living, working and visiting the UK. Orchestra Health understand the importance of incorporate cultural and religious differences when treating clients from Arabic countries.