Mariwala Health Initiative

OUT NOW! With this issue of ReFrame, we hope to address the averted eye in psy-disciplines, featuring perspectives of feminists from Turkish, Kenyan and Dalit movements; mental health professionals from Palestine, Malawi, and Kashmir; the Quichua, Naga, Roma Indigenous communities, as well as the Murrup Bung’allambee Indigenous Psychology group. 🔴 Section 1: ‘Re-vision’ — features perspectives on livable lives, colonial trauma, cultural negligence, neoliberal well-being, and neurodiversity. 🔴 Section 2: “Contexts” — details lived experience that challenges mainstream constructs around PTSD, maternal mental health, cultural sensitivity, and stigma. 🔴 Section 3: “Engage” — contextualises incarceration, collective healing, trauma-informed approaches from marginalised communities, health equity, and digital medicine. Through ReFrame VI, we hope to continuously confront suffering in ways that are intersectional and collective, while also centering context, resistance, and solidarity. A HUGE thank you to the ReFrame authors for sharing their valuable insights, and to the teams at MHI and @studiopingpongindia for bringing this issue to fruition. 🔗 Click this link to visit the ReFrame VI microsite: https://lnkd.in/gmVWVd_Q Raj Mariwala Amalina Sengupta Saniya Rizwan Sudarshan R Kottai beyza bilal Cammi Murrup-Stewart Mady Wills Amishaa Gupta Farah Maneckshaw Dr Samah Jabr Syed Mujtaba Mahnaz Ajaz Yerram Raju Behara Rinku (She/Her) Salew P Kadena Sandra Jumbe Gurudev Nanda Visuals: Studio Ping Pong

‘This sadness may not be quantifiable to most, in fact, the ailing often go to great lengths to deny its existence at all. But it lingers, as it did for me. The years before I came to terms with my asexuality were amongst the most hollow I’d ever experienced.’ For #AceAwarenessWeek, 'NF' (who chooses to remain anonymous) writes about his experiences as an ace man — who was conditioned by patriarchal norms to value sex above all else — which led to both dissonance and despair. Read >> #MentalHealth #Asexuality #LGBTQIA

The Global Mental Health (GMH) field often frames distress as symptoms of psychological disorders that can be treated using Western methods like talk therapy and psychiatry while overlooking the effects of intersecting power systems such as capitalism, patriarchy, authoritarianism and colonialism. In their piece for ReFrame VI — ‘Contesting Global Mental Health’ — Raj Mariwala, Saniya Rizwan, and Amalina Sengupta address how GMH fails to account for the complexity of the ‘Global South’ and its material realities, which are shaped by power dynamics beyond the Global North-South binary. To challenge GMH's colonial roots, we must recognise that it perpetuates structural violence. Visual (Slide 1): Rishabh Pinapotu Read the full article from ReFrame VI: Global Mental Health from the Margins here: https://lnkd.in/emBje-CF

The Global Mental Health (GMH) field often frames distress as symptoms of psychological disorders that can be treated using Western methods like talk therapy and psychiatry while overlooking the effects of intersecting power systems such as capitalism, patriarchy, authoritarianism and colonialism. In their piece for ReFrame VI — ‘Contesting Global Mental Health’ — Raj Mariwala, Saniya Rizwan, and Amalina Sengupta address how GMH fails to account for the complexity of the ‘Global South’ and its material realities, which are shaped by power dynamics beyond the Global North-South binary. To challenge GMH's colonial roots, we must recognise that it perpetuates structural violence. Visual (Slide 1): Rishabh Pinapotu Read the full article from ReFrame VI: Global Mental Health from the Margins here: https://lnkd.in/emBje-CF

The 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development have included actions on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) & mental health within its targets; yet in India many households incur out-of-pocket expenditure for treatment of NCDs (including medication, diagnostic test, and drug therapy) that had forced 8.50% of people to go below the poverty line in the year 2014, which again increased to 12.43% in 2017–18. What can be done to reduce the highly disproportionate barriers faced by people from marginalised communities when accessing care for NCDs and mh? Swipe to read>> #Noncommunicablediseases #economicbarriers #mentalhealth #marginalised #universalhealthcoverage #UHC #Careforall #SGDs #2030

Entrepreneurial leaders talk about employee well-being but hesitate to initiate a conversation on their own mental health. They cannot always share the complexities of business with their family, and often worry that a disclosure to clients and investors may have negative consequences. For entrepreneurs from marginalised communities — the isolation, anxiety, and distress this causes is especially intensified. However, by addressing mental health and talking about their stressors, business leaders can bring about social shifts that change the narrative around it. Click the link in story to read MHI Founder Harsh Mariwala's full article with Livemint Lounge: https://lnkd.in/grvS8Deq You can also access MHI’s report on Mental Well-Being at the workplace here: https://lnkd.in/g7PdhW6m *Alt-Text in Comments

Entrepreneurial leaders talk about employee well-being but hesitate to initiate a conversation on their own mental health. They cannot always share the complexities of business with their family, and often worry that a disclosure to clients and investors may have negative consequences. For entrepreneurs from marginalised communities — the isolation, anxiety, and distress this causes is especially intensified. However, by addressing mental health and talking about their stressors, business leaders can bring about social shifts that change the narrative around it. Click the link in story to read MHI Founder Harsh Mariwala's full article with Livemint Lounge: https://lnkd.in/grvS8Deq You can also access MHI’s report on Mental Well-Being at the workplace here: https://lnkd.in/g7PdhW6m *Alt-Text in Comments

I'm thrilled to announce the publication of my research, “Work With Us, Not Against Us,” co-authored with Farah Maneckshaw featured in ReFrame by the Mariwala Health Initiative ✨ Our work highlights the perspectives of neurodivergent clients on neurodiversity-affirming mental health practices. We aim to foster a deeper understanding of how these approaches can enhance therapeutic relationships. You can read our article here: https://Inkd.in/g-duupz8 We would love to know your thoughts 🩵

On this #WorldFoodDay, we reflect on the theme “Right to Food for a Better Life and a Better Future.” Access to nutrition is tied to dignity, equity, and mental well-being. Food injustice disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, where food insecurity and stigma can lead to feelings of inadequacy. The mental health effects of food scarcity and conflicts, driven by patriarchal norms and caste-based restrictions, can cause anxiety and depressive disorders, especially in women who often eat last and least (Hathi, P., Coffey, D., Thorat, A., & Khalid, N. (2021)) Conflicts driven by #patriarchal norms and #caste-based restrictions can create hostile home environments, leading to increased stress and feelings of inadequacy among family members. Let’s work towards food #equity and a healthier future for all.

Viewing our biggest problems — climate change, unequal development and so on — through an intersectional and equity-based lens is a prerequisite to defining well-being and growth beyond GDP in India. Designing comprehensive solutions for climate change begins by understanding how people experience it through multiple axes — such as one’s caste, tribal status, class, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, physical and neurological disabilities, educational attainment, and caregiving responsibilities. Aayaan S. writes for MHI in the piece: ‘Countries Set to Prioritise Well-Being over GDP to Abate Climate Change, but Intersectional Well-Being Is Missing in Climate Spaces’ — visit: mhi.org.in/voices/ #ClimateChange #WellBeing #Intersectionality