This Race Equality Week meet CBT Therapist Shaesta Saleem who has been the driving force in improving access to our NHS Talking Therapy services among our ethnically and culturally diverse communities.
On top of her CBT case load in the Burnley area, Shaesta took it upon herself to challenge the narrative of ‘hard to reach communities’. She has been committed to improving awareness and reducing mental health stigma to empower culturally diverse communities to access early help for depression and anxiety.
Shaesta said:
“It’s a passion project for me to work towards making NHS Talking Therapies accessible to people from ethnically and culturally diverse communities. When losing my dad and numerous friends and relatives during COVID-19 and experiencing complicated grief and trauma, we did not know what support was available to us. The lack of awareness or access into psychotherapies motivated me to do what I can to try and tackle mental health inequalities head-on.
I was blessed to be offered an opportunity with the Trust and took a CBT Trainee post in the Pennine Team. I recognised that mental health inequalities can only be truly challenged when we engage, actively listen and personalise care for people from marginalised communities. With my NHS Talking Therapies Team we have shown up for local communities through active engagement in places of worship such as mosques, the church, community centres, universities and schools."
Shaesta is one of a number of ethnically and culturally diverse champions across our Talking Therapies service.
She explains:
“In July 2024, with my champions we joined with the Quality Improvement Team on a project to increase awareness of and access to NHS Talking Therapies for ethnically and culturally diverse communities through stakeholder engagement.”
As a result of a collaborative effort of outreach work, including community and stakeholder engagement, provisional figures show a17% increase in referrals coming from ethnically and culturally diverse communities accessing our service.
Shaesta said:
“This trailblazing work is a team effort that started from my vision board 18 months ago. The project is built upon professional curiosity, courageous conversations and relationship building with our ethnically and cultural diverse communities. If we want to be truly inclusive we must show up and ask the communities about their experiences of mental health inequalities and utilise their strengths and personalise care.”
Over the last 18 months, Shaesta and her colleagues have reached almost 800 people delivering 23 interactive outreach workshops in the Nelson and Burnley area delivering engagement in Urdu, Punjabi, Bangla and English.
Her colleagues have also delivered additional taster sessions in Preston, Lancaster and Blackburn with Darwin. By the end of the year, they hope to have reached a further 1,000 people from ethnically and diverse communities (ECDC) spreading the word about psychological support.
Shaesta has also worked closely with Age UK Lancashire with co-production including a six week wellbeing course based at The Chai Centre in Burnley. She is working on delivering a cultural competency workshop with Lancashire Mind to clinicians across the Trust.
Shaesta added:
“I feel blessed to have the opportunity to work creatively. Credit goes to my amazing colleagues, Hina Ayub, my manager Kathryn Millward and Clinical Lead Katri Kuusniemi for supporting me. All our champions are amazing and passionate about improving access to care. We hope to establish a Special Interest Group of people from diverse communities who’ve accessed NHS Talking Therapies and are passionate about challenging racial health inequalities.
To be truly inclusive requires a whole systems approach and I’m happy to say that the inclusive values that underpin the project are strong and shared by our Executive Team and our CEO Chris Oliver.”
