‘Indian women dependent on their husband’s visa afraid to seek help for mental health’ says Dr Devaki Monani

There’s social stigma attached to discussing mental health issues in the South-Asian community especially among women, researchers have found. What stops women from seeking help and whom can they approach? Dr Devaki Monani, Lecturer of Social Work at Charles Darwin University speaks exclusively to SBS Hindi at the FECCA Conference in Hobart on the issues people from Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds face.

Scores of women have been abandoned by their non residential husbands. Source: SBS

October is marked as the Mental Health Month that provides an opportunity to raise awareness about Mental Health and wellbeing.

A recent research South Asian Women’s mental health literacy project: developing good practice outcomes highlighted many issues that Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) background face in Australia.

“There’s a lot of stigma attached to talking about personal mental health issues within the South Asian community. I feel it is because the community is small and people know each other. That makes many afraid to talk about it due to fear the others will find out about it,” says Dr Devaki Monani, Lecturer at Charles Darwin University and one of the researchers of this project.

Dr Monani points out that many women within the community suffer from mental health issues but are afraid to open up or seek help as many are dependent on their husband’s visa.

In this podcast, Dr Monani points out where can women suffering from issues like post-natal depression can seek help.

Listen to the podcast:

LISTEN TO

‘Indian women dependent on their husband’s visa afraid to seek help for mental health’ says Dr Devaki Monani

SBS Hindi

03:18Hindi

Tune into SBS Hindi at 5 pm every day and follow us on Facebook and Twitter