PIONEERING AN INNOVATIVE INTERVENTION TO REDUCE MENTAL HEALTH RELATED STIGMA IN MUSLIM COMMUNITIES: A PROTOCOL

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of mental health related stigma in Muslim communities, there are only a limited number of intervention studies reported in the literature. Digital interventions (i.e., YouTube clips, videos) are relatively cheap, highly accessible and easily disseminated and are increasingly being used to improve mental health literacy and reduce mental health related stigma. However, as far as the authors are aware, there are no stigma reduction programmes targeting Muslim communities that leverage digital interventions reported in the literature. This paper outlines a protocol for a digital intervention to challenge mental health related stigma in Muslim communities. The proposed intervention will be a 5 to 10-minute YouTube clip/video the active ingredients of which will be: [1] an interview with a Muslim expert by lived/living experience, [2] an Imam (Muslim faith leader) and [3] a psychiatrist. We will recruit members of Muslim communities living in Muslim minority countries in the Global North (United Kingdom, Unites States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to participate in the study (inclusion criteria: adults aged 18 years and over, Muslim background). The study will be comprised of two groups: an active group that will be exposed to the Muslim faith appropriate digital intervention and a control group that will be exposed to a digital intervention that is not Muslim faith appropriate. We will administer validated psychometric stigma scales on participants in both groups before and after exposure to the interventions. We hypothesize that viewing an anti-stigma clip/video that is Islamic faith appropriate will be associated with greater reductions in mental health related stigma in members of Muslim communities compared to viewing an anti-stigma clip/video that is not Islamic faith appropriate.