The ‘No More Mualagh’ project will educate the Afghan community, general practitioners (GPs), pharmacists and mental health workers in rural areas about the Afghani experience of depression and antidepressant medication. It commenced in October 2004 and will be complete by mid 2005. ‘Mualagh’ is a Dari word used by some Afghani people to describe feelings of stress. It means floating in sad uncertainty.

The project is funded by the National Prescribing Service through Multicultural Mental Health Australia, National Ethnic Disability Alliance. Associate Professor Nicholas Procter, University of South Australia, is leading the project in Murray Bridge, where the project is supported by the Murray Bridge Refugee Support Group and the Office of Mental Health, Department of Health, South Australia. SANE Australia is also supporting the project by making facts sheets they have developed on depression and anti-depressant medication available for adaptation for the special needs of this group.

Many Afghani refugees granted temporary protection visas living in rural Australia experience depression as a result of the temporal nature of their long-term fate, separation from family and community and the affects of torture and trauma experienced in their homeland and in detention centres.

The project will work with the Refugee Support Group to understand the ways the symptoms of depression are experienced and communicated by the Afghani community and practical things GPs, pharmacists and health care workers can do to help Afghani people cope with their depression. “The support and encouragement from the volunteers of the Refugee Support group to the value of this project has been outstanding.” said Associate Professor Procter, who has worked with Afghani refugees for several years.

The Afghanis discuss their depression experiences as an adjunct to the English classes at Murray Bridge. ‘Through the process of the project Afghan men will learn from each other about coping with depression and how they can work with others to help them with their situation,’ said Dr Procter.

The Afghani group will also work with a professional interpreter to translate antidepressant medication information into Dari. This translated material will then be produced as information sheets and community service announcements and distributed throughout rural Australia.

The knowledge gained from the classes will also be developed into information sheets in English, for prescribers and providers of anti-depressant medication. These will be distributed to GPs, pharmacists and mental health workers in rural communities where Afghani people live.

Nicholas Procter, who is an Advisor to MMHA, believes that the project is much more than just the mere translation of information: “This project is about better health information and English language development simultaneously. The health care education topic, the safe and effectives use of antidepressant medication,” he said. “This project recognises that antidepressant medication is one important step in getting better. It aims to educate the prescribers, dispensers and users on safe, effective use of the medication when it is taken. Through these partnerships, the prescribers, dispensers and users of antidepressant medication will be encouraged to learn about the Afghani experience with depression. This is consistent with principals of health education and community development emphasised in the National Mental Health Plan 2002-2006 and the Framework for Implementation of the National Mental Health Plan 2003-2008 in Multicultural Australia.”

Even at this early stage Dr. Procter says the project has already exposed the taken for granted assumptions of what many know as a ‘side-effect’. “For our new arrivals, these concepts need to be understood and this project is helping to find a way forward so that medical language can be better understood,” he said.

For more information: Call MMHA on 02 9840 3333 or Nicholas Procter on 08 8302 2148