How are you? This phrase, often used as an innocuous pleasantry at the start of a conversation, holds a deeper, more hard-hitting meaning in the age of COVID-19. Many may respond to the question with the customary ‘I’m fine’ and go about their day, all while cloaking their emotions under the guise of feeling well and quietly enduring gusts of dark emotions. But if there’s anything that the pandemic has laid bare, it’s the need for open discussions and shifting perceptions around mental health.
“Destigmatizing mental health starts at the dinner table,” says Maryam Belhoul, founding member of With Hope, the UAE’s first (NGO) that aims at raising awareness about mental health through advocacy and volunteerism. “It starts with being there for a friend who is suffering from mental health challenges, or through introspection – by delving deeper into the ways that we, as individuals, are contributing to the stigma,” she adds.
Maryam holds that mental health stigma is a deep-rooted issue that has been scaffolded by years of intergenerational messaging, media depiction and guilt. With Hope is altering these blinkered portrayals, encouraging the spread of mental health literacy. It was launched as a voluntary endeavor less than five years ago by a group of five Emirati women who were determined to help others, and initially involved weekly trips to volunteer with in-house patients at Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital in Dubai.
“Soon after, we realized that there’s a gap in mental health awareness that needs to be filled,” Maryam notes. “As we conducted weekly visits to volunteer with the patients, we were able to experience the stigma around the topic. For some of us, our own close circle of family friends didn’t fully accept the idea,” she says. And so, With Hope largely focuses on organising mental health awareness initiatives, dispelling misconceptions, encouraging discourse and propagating the idea that there’s no shame in seeking help.
The NGO’s efforts have been acknowledged globally, with it being recognized as one of the top 15 mental health initiatives worldwide by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “On the national front, we were fortunate enough to receive the support of key leaders in the field. In collaboration with local entities and federal ministries, we were able to reach a wider audience,” says Maryam. “The vision of With Hope is and always will be to have a community in the UAE where everyone supports and accepts people with mental health challenges.”
Among With Hope’s key advocacy projects is the AQL Podcast that was launched in 2020 in the wake of COVID-19. The platform has hosted luminaries like Her Excellency Sheikha Shamma Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, and an impressive roster of clinical psychologists and cognitive behavioral therapists to offer guidance and support to listeners. “During the year, spreading awareness on mental health took a new medium that’s not limited to location or time. The podcast provides an opportunity to create diverse content and reach the maximum number of targeted audiences,” Maryam explains.
It’s not uncommon to hear diagnoses used as adjectives, such as describing an overly organized individual as ‘being OCD’ (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). To a person suffering from the condition, seeing this language used as a joke can be incredibly difficult to digest.
In 2018, With Hope launched #MyMindMatters, an online campaign that shares the stories of individuals from different backgrounds on the NGO’s Instagram platform. Normalizing mental illness and addressing it with a collectivist approach, the project features stories of bravery and overcoming fears associated with psychological and emotional wellbeing.
“When you try to tackle such a multifaceted societal challenge, you have to appreciate the small wins before the big ones. Our milestones are the frequent, human-centric interactions – ones that tell us that our work matters,” shares Maryam. “Opening the direct messages that we receive on With Hope’s Instagram account and reading messages like, ‘I visit the profile when I need to know that I’m not alone with my depression’, bring joy to our hearts. Receiving a photo of an art drawing with a red balloon from one of the in-house patients in the psychiatric hospital makes our day. It’s through these small wins that we feel the most connected to the work we do.”
At the core of the organization is hosting panel discussions and workshops in collaboration with experts in the field, making in- depth knowledge about mental health accessible to a wider audience. The team members continue to volunteer at Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital, cultivating a first-hand understanding of mental illnesses with empathy and compassion.
Particularly, the early years (zero to seven) have the highest impact on how a child will later construct his or her view as an adult and navigate the setbacks that are inevitable byproducts of life.
Speaking of milestones, Maryam continues to win laurels on both the educational and professional fronts. She’s an engineer by profession and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the American University of Sharjah. But her penchant for With Hope and her aspiration for social change sparked her curiosity to learn about human development and education with a concentration on early childhood, a Master’s program that she’s currently pursuing at Harvard University.
“I was intrigued to understand where all mental health setbacks start and how we can tackle the root cause. All questions led me to the same answer – early childhood development and education,” she states. “Particularly, the early years (zero to seven) have the highest impact on how a child will later construct his or her view as an adult and navigate the setbacks that are inevitable byproducts of life.”
Maryam’s mission has been to incorporate science-based evidence into the advocacy work at With Hope. “I also wish to expand our efforts towards promoting social-emotional learning in the early development stages of our schooling systems, in order to equip the adults of tomorrow with the skills they need to tackle adversity and, ultimately, foster resilience,” she explains.
At With Hope, we’re a group of people with no clinical background in the field. What brings us together is our passion for the cause. You can also do the same.
As an advocate for the young generation, Maryam was a part of the Dubai Youth Council (2019-2021) and represented the UAE as a youth delegate at the United Nations in 2019. “In the long run, I aspire to launch initiatives that will equip young children with skills such as creativity, critical thinking and empathy through unconventional ways of offering individualized support to strengthen a child’s key cognitive skills.”
Maryam emphasizes that it’s essential to engage in discourse about mental wellbeing in the UAE and across the world. “Numbers from the research tell us that mental health challenges are not only real but are also more frequent than we’d like to admit. One in four adults will experience mental illnesses at some point in their lives. That, in itself, is ample reason for us to normalize mental health challenges,” she notes. “Keeping the conversation going on mental health would mean that people will suffer less in silence. It’d also mean that those who need help will feel safer to seek it.”
Being aware and informed is the first step in assisting a loved one to get the support they need. “The well-known phrase ‘knowledge is power’ lies at the heart of normalizing mental illness. Shifting perceptions is about providing individuals with real, scientific knowledge in order to dispel the mystery and superstition that surrounds mental illness in our society,” she explains.
One of the most actionable steps that individuals can take to destigmatize mental health is to be conscious of mental illness vocabulary and its proper usage. “It’s not uncommon to hear diagnoses used as adjectives, such as describing an overly organized individual as ‘being OCD’ (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). To a person suffering from the condition, seeing this language used as a joke can be incredibly difficult to digest. The goal here is to start a meaningful conversation on how we relate to those who have mental illnesses, including the terms we use in regular conversation.”
An inherent sense of duty can definitely help strengthen the collective response to mental health. As Maryam says, “At With Hope, we’re a group of people with no clinical background in the field. What brings us together is our passion for the cause. You can also do the same.”
Follow @WithHopeUAE on Instagram.
