World Mental Health Day: The impact of one piece of research on perceptions of Punjabi mental health during the pandemic

As part of World Mental Health day, we share the findings and media coverage of a report investigating mental health in the Punjabi community during the coronavirus pandemic.

What has been the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the psychological well-being of Punjabis? That’s the question tackled in the ground-breaking research from the Punjabi mental health project Taraki.

COVID-19 and Punjabi communities: Mental well-being during COVID-19 lockdown was published by Taraki in August after intensive research exploring the effects of the pandemic and sudden lockdown on Punjabi communities. The majority of Sikhs are Punjabi. More than 400 people completed an extensive online survey to describe how the pandemic has impact them with findings from these augmented by further semi-structured interviews.

The report contains stark findings: 60% of all respondents reported a decline in their self-rated mental wellbeing from before to during COVID-19 and lock-down, with average self-rated mental wellbeing decreasing by 18%. This notable decrease among Punjabis was most prevalent among those who identify as LGBTQIA+, first generation migrants, and those living with co-morbidities, all of whom registered a decline in mental wellbeing of 25% or more in just a few months.

Fear of the future, occasional low mood, and difficulty sleeping were the most common obstacles described by respondents. Causes of distress ranged widely, from employment uncertainty, to a sense of ‘hopelessness’ from contemporary discussions of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, to family conflict and gendered expectations.

One of the most interesting breakdowns in the findings was by faith. The overwhelming majority of respondents (nearly 90%) self-identified as Sikh (a description which ranged from being born into a Sikh family to being a practicing, Amritdhari Sikh). Nearly 40% of Amritdhari Sikh respondents identified as having mental health challenges before the lockdown. Unsurprisingly, more than 90% sought support through their faith but less than 5% of Amritdhari Sikhs accessed support through state or private healthcare services.

Overall, less than 10% of respondents said they had not felt supported at all during the lockdown, with the majority of respondents accessing support through friends, family and faith. Some sub-sets, such as LGBTQIA+ respondents and those under 40 were more likely to access support through social media.

While the majority of the respondents were from the UK, some were based in the United States, Canada, Punjab (the state and province in both India and Pakistan respectively). They assessed how well they thought their country’s government and healthcare system was responding to the pandemic. On both measures, Canada was rated the best. Those in the UK rated their government’s response as 4 out of 10 but rated the healthcare response higher at 7.6 out of 10. Those in the USA reported the lowest rating for both their government’s and healthcare system’s response to the pandemic.

Looking forward, respondents were clear in favouring the development and provision of combined physical and mental well-being supports, which was supported by a majority of every demographic group. Amritdhari Sikhs favoured informal discussion groups, support in faith centres. There were also clear gender differences: females preferred support in school, university of work whereas males tended to prefer informal discussion groups.

The report concluded with a clear set of recommendations aimed at those in policy research, professionals and advocates, and Punjabi publics, which included a combination of opportunities to learn (such as through amplifying the voices of more marginalised groups) and invest (such as developing a healthcare research programme to engage citizen-scientists and academics in meaningful community-based research).

The project’s seven-strong research team was supported by respected Sikh mental health organisations Sikh Your Mind and Sikh Forgiveness who offered input during all stages of the research.

Following the report’s publication, Taraki hosted consultation events to disseminate its findings to stakeholders across research, policy and academia. One of the events was recorded and is online here. Moreover, the report received considerable media coverage both through social media (with over 45,000 impressions on social media platforms) and in established outlets. The Sikh Press Association has a longstanding relationship with Taraki. Its founder and director Shuranjeet Singh spoke at the Sikh PA Annual Review last year and supported these efforts to get media coverage for the report’s findings.

The report has received an impressive array of coverage in both British and international media, including in:
 The Correspondent
 Desi Blitz
 Centre for Mental Health
 Home Away from Homeland
 BBC News London

As the report itself makes clear, it does not claim to speak on behalf of Punjabi communities as a homogenous whole and makes a valuable case of demonstrating the differences between certain demographics in Punjabi communities. It is delightful to see this thoughtful, nuanced approached has made impressive strides in developing agency over how Punjabi issues are represented in mainstream, and less conventional, media.