SEARCH

JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST

Scholars

Articles

Policy Briefs

Reports

Multimedia

Newsletters

Books

Events

Contribute

CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTH

Health care plays a central role in the prosperity and economic development of every nation. Furthermore, a large portion of United State’s domestic spending as well as foreign aid is directed towards the health care sector. The Center for Global Health (CGH) provides health policy analyses with particular focus on the needs of Muslim Americans as well as the Muslim World.

Director of the Center for Global Health (CGH): Dr. Hamada Hamid

Hamada Hamid was born in Baghdad, Iraq but was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His interest in mental health in the Muslim community began while he was a psychology major at the University of Michigan. After graduating medical school at Michigan State University and an internal medicine internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, he worked as a Fulbright Fellow in Jordan studying depression in Jordanian women and stroke care in a Jordanian tertiary center. He completed a combined neurology and psychiatry residency and a Masters degree in Global Public Health, concentrating in epidemiology, at New York University.

He has published several articles and book chapters on mental health in Muslim cultures and is the founding and current managing editor of the Journal of Muslim Mental Health. His current research interests include the role of culture in the presentation and management of neuropsychiatric illnesses and mental health policy in the Middle East.

Ongoing Research

ISPU is currently partnering with the University of Michigan and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study health care behavior among Muslim Americans. See below for attachment.
The seminal study on the role of Islamic Chaplains in New York City is near complete. This is the first study examining the role of Islamic Chaplains in providing spiritual care, making Muslim Americans more comfortable, in U.S. hospitals.
ISPU’s Muslim Doctors study in completing enrollment phase. The results of this study will help address how to better mobilize American immigrant physicians in underserved areas and will help better inform U.S. immigration policies.
ISPU is partnering with the Family & Youth Institute to better address the psychological and social needs of American Muslim youth.

Muslim Health Beliefs & Healthcare Seeking Practices- Interactions & Implications for the US Healthcare System

There are an estimated seven million Muslims in the United States comprised of near equal numbers of Arabs, South Asians and African Americans. This growing American subpopulation while ethnically and racially diverse is bound together by a lived religious tradition that informs cultural values around health and healthcare. These religious values and practices may play a role in health disparities as they may affect interactions with health care providers and pose challenges to equitable healthcare delivery. While there are now various “Muslim patient cultural guides” based on provider experiences with this population, there has been scant empirical research performed in collaboration with Muslim American communities to better understand their health beliefs and practices and how these might influence interactions with the medical system.

Through qualitative inquiry we aim to 1) Identify beliefs about health and illness and health practices within the Muslim American community; 2) Better understand how these beliefs and practices affect healthcare-seeking in Muslim Americans and 3) Identify clinical scenarios or healthcare areas that present Muslim patients with ethical dilemmas and/or conflicts with non-Muslim providers.

This study will inform efforts to deliver high quality and equitable care to Muslim Americans. We will better understand the links between Islamic beliefs and practices and how they affect clinical encounters thus informing a healthcare disparity model for Muslim Americans. Understanding challenges that current healthcare delivery modalities pose for Muslim Americans will also help us guide culturally sensitive interventions and health outreach efforts within this community.

The American Muslim Physicians Study

What impact do U.S. immigration policies have on physicians from the Muslim world? Do immigration policies and recruitment forinternational medical graduates effectively help provide health care for the underserved in the United States? What impact can American Muslim physicians make on the global health challenges in their countries of origin? Our current research hopes to explore the views and experiences of this growing subset of health care providers. Researchers, community members, and policymakers alike can gain insight into the important contributions of Muslim American physicians to health care, civic and community life, and international development. A rich, variegated profile of this group may help not only in reforming health care to meet the needs of increasingly diverse populations, but also to build understanding and bridge the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in this country. This project will be mixed-method in design, with quantitative indicators as well as qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews and focus groups.

The major goals of the quantitative part of the study are to:

assess the types and levels of civic engagement and community service among Muslim physicians

examine the role immigrant Muslim physicians in caring for underserved Americans.

discern the impact of shifts in immigration policy on the supply of, demand for, and service opportunities of immigrant Muslim physicians

understand forces that affect both local and transnational engagement of U.S.-based Muslim physicians in addressing global health needs.

Reforming U.S. healthcare systems and understanding the relationship of the U.S. to the Muslim world may seem like disparate public policy agendas. Religious institutions, such as the Catholic Church and Jewish community health centers, as well as individual public servants have long been central players in providing health care in the U.S. and abroad. As described by Lance Laird in an earlier Institute for Social Policy & Understanding study, Muslim based health care services are an emerging phenomena. This area will also be investigated.

The results of this research have important implications toward U.S. immigration policy both towards Muslim physicians as well as more broadly Muslim professional workers. Furthermore, research may identify areas of strengths within the Muslim physician community which non-profit organizations, health care stakeholders, and global health institutions may use to better serve needy communities both in the United States and abroad.

We are looking for private donors and institutional donors to partner with us to fund this
groundbreaking research study. Please email director@ispu.org for more information about the study or make your tax-deductible donation today.

Islamic Chaplain Study

Can existing hospital chaplaincy and spiritual care services address the specific needs of Muslim patients?More and more Americans turn to their religious faith and spirituality as a means of coping when faced with stressful situations and crises. Despite the long-standing dichotomy between ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ world views on health, there is a growing body of literature suggesting a positive link between religion and spirituality to health and well-being. Hospitals have a long-standing commitment to a more holistic approach to care, including the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions to patient care. Hospital chaplains have played a large role in providing care for patients in the U.S., however it is unclear to what extent culturally appropriate services are being provided for Muslims. Dr. Wahiba Abu Ras’s research program examines the following questions:

How do existing New York City hospital chaplain services train chaplains to address Muslims’ needs?

How accessible are Islamic chaplains and non-Muslim chaplains to Muslim hospital patients?

What are the challenges hospital administrators face when providing spiritual care for Muslim patients in the hospital setting?

How comfortable are New York City chaplains with working with Muslim patients?

What administrative policies are being developed to better meet Muslim patients’ spiritual needs in the health care context?

Muslim Americans have distinct spiritual and health care needs, especially as they relate to daily religious practices and worship, medical ethics, end-of-life treatment choices, and clarifying values of patient with health care staff. Ethical dilemmas arise regularly in today’s highly technological health care systems, specifically concerning decisions to continue or withdraw aggressive treatment. Unavoidably, such decisions interact with personal values and beliefs of all involved. Professional chaplains armed with cultural competence toward Muslim traditions can provide spiritual care to staff members as well as patients and families affected by these complex issues.

The results of this study will help inform the way Muslim chaplains or Muslim-trained chaplains can be integrated into the already established health care system, as well as define the chaplain’s role as it currently exists and how it might be altered to better serve to Muslim patients. Because chaplaincy exists on the margins of health care, many administrators are not aware of their role, much less the need for culturally specific chaplains.

Muslim Youth Study

Muslim youth growing up in the United States face challenges that are distinct from their peers. Understanding these challenges will help us support and develop programs to promote the positive development of American Muslim youth. Research conducted by Dr. Sameera Ahmed’s program at the Family & Youth Institute has thus far identified five major challenge among Muslim youth: lack of social support, issues of identity and acculturation, difficulties maintaining beliefs & values, real and/or perceived discrimination and stereotyping, and issues related to gender relationships. Her current research program seeks to:

Understand the distinct psychological, social, and cultural challenges of Muslim youth, namely recent converts, 2nd generation African American, and immigrant Muslim youth

Identify risk and protective factors to promote resiliency among American Muslim youth

Provide policy recommendations to better meet the diverse needs of Muslim youth.

If you are interested in supporting this important and timely work please email director@ispu.org for more information about the study or make your tax-deductible donation today.

ISPU invited by the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
September 8, 2008

The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) hosted a “Kick off Meeting” for the newly developed Work Group on Health of Muslim Populations, recognizing that Muslims both in the U.S. and globally have distinct public health needs. Dr. Hamada Hamid, Director of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding Center for Global Health (ISPU-CGH), and Dr. Medinah Faldon, an internal medicine specialist who practices in Atlanta, Georgia, provided the key note speeches to outline some of the distinct needs of various Muslim communities.