Somali Mental Health Project

In October 2009, Medica Foundation awarded $50,000 to the College of St. Catherine to underwrite the Somali Mental Health Project that seeks to fill the gap for the Somali immigrant community between the need for and accessibility to mental health services. Working with four community-based organizations, the project seeks to remove systematic barriers, such as language and access, to community mental health services.

Twice an alum, Sahra Omar Noor directs the Language Services and Community Outreach Departments of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview and she will be part of the team to help find a “common language” with service providers and Somali Immigrants. Sahra came to Minnesota as an adolescent war refugee after which she learned English and then earned A.S. and B.S degrees in Nursing from St. Catherine's and a M.S. degree from the University of Minnesota.

Using a community-based participatory research model, the Twin Cities Somali Mental Health Project's goals include identifying and developing a shared language of mental health issues for the Somali community and healthcare providers, as well as providing a cultural context of the Somali experience of mental health. With her professional and personal experience, Sahra will play a key role in this project.

“The Somali Mental Health Project clearly demonstrated a need and approach for identifying ways to overcome the cultural and linguistic challenges the Somali population faces when seeking care for mental health issues,” says Rob Longendyke, Medica Foundation executive director. “The Medica Foundation is committed to funding projects that have the potential to make a significant improvement in the health of all of Minnesota’s population. Projects like this are important as Minnesota becomes a more culturally diverse place.”

St. Kate's Assistant Professor of Nursing Joan Brandt will lead the project. Community partners are:

1) Women of Africa Resource and Development Association (WARDA), a Somali-led women's organization that provides support, education, employment training and health services to women within the Somali immigrant community in order to promote independence.

2) Wellness Connection of Minnesota, a faith-based healthcare organization that provides health resources, health counseling and education and advocacy services to Somali immigrants living in the Twin Cities. Bilingual staff provide knowledge and skills to clients through home visits, support groups and community outreach.

3) The Somali Health Project provides health education, health promotion and disease prevention programs to Somali audiences in Minnesota on locally broadcast television and radio shows. Executive Director Dr. Abdirizak H. Mohamed oversees Somali physicians, nurses and healthcare educators.

4) Midwest Home Healthcare, Inc., led by owner and president Fowsia Isse, a St. Kate's alumna. This organization provides group home foster care for mentally ill Somali adults.

Funding from the Medica Foundation for this year will support a community forum in the fall with Somali community members and healthcare providers to present findings and come to consensus on the key issues.

The grant will also support focus groups and key informant interviews in the spring to develop culturally and linguistically appropriate intervention strategies to address the identified barriers.

St. Kate's staff members Nicole Hines, Beth Koenig and Kirsten Walters worked to develop the proposal with Project Director Joan Brandt and her leadership team of Jeannine Mueller-Harmon, Barbara Champlin, and Sahra Noor.

The St. Kate's Difference

When Sahra first started studying at St. Kate's Noor’s father worried that Sahra would lose her Muslim faith, “but he says instead he watched me become a woman…. When I came here, I had ideas, but I didn’t know I had the freedom to express them. St. Kate’s showed me ways to say what I wanted to say in a respectful and intelligent way. They emphasized service from the heart – if you believe in it, do it, no matter what.”