A CENTRE at the heart of a Bradford community has vowed to empower parents and carers after hearing of their concerns around ADHD, autism and eating disorders.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Millan Centre, based on Victor Street in Manningham, has played a vital role in creating safe spaces for people of all ages, backgrounds, and faiths to speak about mental health and access help.
Saliha Sadiq and Elizabeth Hellmich set up the successful Emerald project for girls and Safer Than Ever project for women during the first lockdown.
Saliha also offered counselling on a voluntary basis in Urdu and Punjabi.
From those counselling sessions, girls and women spoke of how they were concerned about the mental health of the boys and men they knew, prompting a project to support males.
The centre’s important work around mental health continues and Saliha has found mothers are experiencing anxiety and low mood due to a lack of understanding around things like ADHD, autism and eating disorders.
She said: “All communities, and especially the South Asian communities in general, struggle to access support before and after when their child is diagnosed with autism and ADHD.
“Because of the ongoing counselling and the mental health support, a lot of things have come to light.
“What came through these counselling sessions, a lot of parents have said ‘we’ve been told our child might have ADHD and autism, what is that?’
Saliha, who is vice-chair and a director of the mental health hub in the Millan Centre, said she receives calls from desperate parents and carers and feels their anger and frustration.
“I get phone calls the evening saying, ‘this is what the doctor said, what does that mean, what is autism?” said Saliha.
“They feel they are going to look silly if they ask questions.”
Language barriers can often pose a problem, as well as general issues around a lack of resources and long waiting lists. Saliha spoke of the need for more people to become qualified counsellors, particularly those who can speak different languages.
Saliha and Elizabeth have now turned their sights to empowering parents and carers through new courses on autism, ADHD and eating disorders.
These will be delivered by accredited providers, to give them the tools they need to support their children.
There has already been a good response and people are asked to contact the centre for further details.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel