Nils Kappelmann, M.Sc.- PhD Student at the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry (Germany)
“I’ve been involved with MGF as a consultant since May 2020. I have been working with brilliant MGF staff from the UK and Pakistan on different projects relating to migrant-focused weight management interventions and incidence of bipolar disorder in migrant and non-migrant populations. For these projects, we have gone through systematic review protocols for pre-registration on PROSPERO and discussed the benefits and disadvantages of certain design choices such as database search strategies, outcome definitions, and risk of bias tools. I hope my prior experience in evidence synthesis has helped shape these projects further. The projects and the diverse people working on them have certainly helped me gain further insight and perspective on different review aspects, so I hope the collaboration with MGF continues to be as educational and fruitful in the months to come.”
TRAINING PROJECT FOR SOUTH ASIAN MUMS IN UK
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis, our Foundation has been awarded £15k from Kathleen Hannay Memorial Charity to provide emotional/mental wellbeing support to vulnerable mothers with complex needs in North East London. We are focusing on BAME mothers given our earlier work and experience with this particular demographic, as well as evidence from the latest review by Public Health England which has reported BAME groups to be at ‘much greater risk’ of dying from Coronavirus compared to white British groups.
Through the “Maternal Health and Wellbeing Support” project in England, we would like to achieve the following: (1) work with BAME mothers during their pregnancy and early motherhood to improve their confidence, assertiveness and self-esteem; (2) explore aspects of their lifestyle which may be adapted or changed in order to achieve improved sense of well-being e.g. social support, goal setting, physical activity and diet – highlighting the importance of self-care; (3) improve mother-baby bonding and break the cycle of poor emotional development in infants; and (4) address the increasing feelings of isolation and loneliness reported as a result of the pandemic
