The Bay Area Muslim mental health community advisory board: evaluation of a community based participatory approach.

AIMS: The aim of this paper is to present a novel case for the formation, operation and evaluation of a community advisory aboard comprised of Muslims residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, California that utilised a community based participatory approach to address local Muslim mental health needs. The CAB was recruited in partnership with the Muslim Community Association (MCA), one of the largest Islamic centres in the San Franscisco Bay Area. In addition to describing the development of the CAB, the authors present the findings of the evaluation and synthesis of best processes based on CAB members' feedback. METHODS: To evaluate the perceived community advisory board members' perceptions of their roles and elicit feedback on how to enhance the relationship between the university team and the CAB, an evaluation was conducted by an independent team who was not part of the research process. Data was collected using anonymous individual surveys and small group open discussions that were conducted over three evaluation meetings. The evaluation utilised mixed method data collection strategies using questions from Schulz et al. (, Evaluation and Program Planning 26, 249-262), an instrument for evaluating dimensions of group dynamics within CBPR partnerships. RESULTS: Results of the evaluation within the sphere of CAB operation indicated that CAB members found the greatest satisfaction from their contributions through direct participation in the research activities that were conducted by the university-CAB team. The collective responses indicated that most CAB members were satisfied with trust built between the university-CAB team and the diversity represented in the members of the board. However, given that the Bay Area is home to a very diverse Muslim community, challenges in recruiting representatives that account for all possible self-identifying groups was reported by the CAB with recommendations to recruit religious leaders. Recommendations also included eliciting funds for potential financial compensation for CAB members. CONCLUSIONS: The Stanford-San Francisco Bay Area CAB demonstrated that empowering community members through direct participation, creating channels and safe spaces for feedback help create community rooted research that carry the true voices of marginalised communities and reflects their evolving needs.

Mapping global Muslim mental health research: analysis of trends in the English literature from 2000 to 2015.

BACKGROUND: By 2030, the global Muslim population is expected to reach 2.2 billion people. The representations of Islam and Muslims in the media and academic literature may unconsciously impact how clinicians perceive and approach their Muslim patients. Our study focuses on the emerging Muslim mental health (MMH) literature using bibliometric analysis, specifically social network analysis of word co-occurrence and co-authorship networks of academic publications, to describe how the content of MMH discourse is evolving. METHODS: We conducted an Ovid search (including Medline and PsycInfo databases) to identify articles written in English from 2000 to 2015 that had the terms 'Islam' and/or 'Muslim' in the abstract as well as research conducted in Muslim-majority countries and among Muslim minorities in the rest of the world. RESULTS: Of the 2652 articles on MMH, the majority (65.6%) focused on describing psychopathology; the minority (11.2%) focused on issues around stigma, religiosity, spirituality, identity, or acculturation. Among the top 15 most frequent terms in abstracts were 'post-traumatic stress disorder', 'violence', 'fear', 'trauma', and 'war'. Social network analysis showed there was little collaborative work across regions. CONCLUSIONS: The challenges of producing MMH research are similar to the challenges faced across global mental health research. Much of the MMH research reflects regional challenges such as the impact of conflict and violence on mental health. Continued efforts to develop global mental health researchers through cross-cultural exchanges, academic journals' dedicated sections and programs for global mental health recruitment, and online training are needed to address the gap in research and collaborations.