Muslim Health Professionals and Students Dinner

I attended this event last saturday and have been delaying to write about this for about a week.

This event was organised by Hayaat Project, a new NGO in Melbourne. I believed their main aim is to improve health care system and solving various problems relating to accessing health care for Australian Muslims.

Dinner
The event was held in a Turkish Restaurant. We were waiting for hours for the main meal to be served. The service was terrible and all the participants were hungry to the extent that we have to eat the side dishes first.

We were at top floor but it seems the air conditioning does not work or the restaurant has poor air circulation. We were literally roasted throughout the dinner. It was quite hot that few of the participants had to leave early.

I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone in the future.

Discussion
There were several interesting point being discussed among the participants.

1. Depression or to be specific, post-natal depression among Muslims women not being recognised as an important medical problem among Muslim scholars. They were usually told that this is the work of devils.
   
2. Problems accessing Muslim health networks in Melbourne. This is an important communication issue that requires a thorough discussion for it to be solved.
   
3. Palliative and funeral care for Muslim patients in hospital
4. Awareness among Non-Muslim health professionals about Islam and various Muslim cultures.
5. Lack of psychosocial support especially for new immigrants who can't speak English very well.
   

All of these issues were important and highlight that lots of effort need to be made to improve Muslim health-related issues around Melbourne.

p/s: One of the participants reminded us that many Muslims nowadays are trying so hard to communicate with many Muslims around their area but many forgot to know their own next-door neighbours.