\n Kaneez Akhter, 58, passed away in the Myra Shay area on May 3, 2021.\n<\/p>\n
\n An inquest, held at Bradford Coroners’ Court, heard how the medical cause of her death was burns.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, Kaneez’s daughter, Safeena Khan, has contacted the Telegraph & Argus in a bid to further tackle the stigma surrounding mental health “in these very tough times we’re living in today”.\n<\/p>\n
\n She also paid tribute to her late mother, describing her as “amazing” and sadly missed.\n<\/p>\n
\n Safeena told the T&A: “I really want to raise awareness about mental health, especially among the Asian community.\n<\/p>\n
\n “My mum suffered with her mental health – she really did struggle and, very sadly, took her own life.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I want to get across the message that it’s OK not to feel OK \u2013 and it’s so important to talk.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I know it’s tough, but there is help out there – there are so many wonderful services to support people.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In the first instance, I’d advise people to contact their GP to speak about their situation.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There are also many fantastic organisations locally and nationally, such as the Samaritans, which are there for people.”\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the NHS, South Asian communities form the biggest ethnic minority group in the UK – and common mental health disorders are more prevalent in this population than in the general population.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, people of South Asian heritage are less likely to seek or access support for mental health problems.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the charity Mind, research shows people from South Asian communities are more likely to mask mental health issues due to cultural stigmas.\n<\/p>\n
\n Paying tribute to her mother, Safeena added: “She was amazing.\n<\/p>\n
\n “She was my best friend.\n<\/p>\n
\n “She was an amazing grandmother to my children.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We all adored her and we miss her so much – she was such a lovely person.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I miss her warmth and I wish she could be back here with us again.”\n<\/p>\n
\n When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year.\n<\/p>\n
\n You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org<\/a>, or visit www.samaritans.org<\/a> to find your nearest branch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaneez Akhter, 58, passed away in the Myra Shay area on May 3, 2021. An inquest, held at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-234039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}