Worthing and Littlehampton Polish Outreach Project Launched

Sunday, 20 March 2022 06:25

By RNHJourno

Worthing and Littlehampton's Polish communities are being offered language help by the mental health charity, Mind.

Mind say they're helping the second to get the largest ethnic group in West Sussex support and translated mental health resources because they know that few Poles are currently getting help with the charity.

It's part of their communities and inclusion work to give practical help accessing support and understand more about what Polish people need.

The project has been running for six months after Kasia Racey was appointed as the charity's Polish mental health community outreach and development worker.

She came to the UK from Poland 10 years ago and now lives locally with her family, where she is spreading the word about what West Sussex Mind can offer to Polish people.

Kasia said: “Firstly, there is a cultural barrier – people find it hard to talk about mental health in Poland. There is little awareness or support available and there is a lot of stigma around mental health. Secondly, there is a language barrier, which makes getting help doubly hard. Getting support with your mental health inevitably involves lots of talking and this can be difficult if your first language isn’t English.”

The charity also want to get more Polish people involved with them to help support people in the community, raise awareness about their work and challenge stigma around mental health.

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