Punjabi Project
To find out about Cultural Engagement Team visits in your community, check out our Announcements page.
ਆਪਣੀ ਕਮਿਊਨਿਟੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਕਲਚਰਲ ਇੰਗੇਜਮੈਂਟ ਟੀਮ ਦੇ ਦੌਰਿਆਂ ਬਾਰੇ ਜਾਣਨ ਲਈ, ਸਾਡਾ ਐਲਾਨਾਂ ਵਾਲਾ ਪੰਨਾ ਵੇਖੋ।
Our service offers a unique range of support for people with drug & alcohol problems, and our Punjabi-Speaking staff & volunteers have a mission to reduce barriers in communities where people are directly affected by addiction due to cultural norms, stigma and embarrassment, and where drinking is seen as both traditionally acceptable or forbidden. Our team delivers education & empathy and open important conversations between individuals and affected others.
The team visit gurdwaras, mosques, and community hubs, delivering health and wellbeing interventions alongside Recovery Near You & Wolverhampton Today’s Department of Public Health. Our lived experience team attend communities and offer free fibro scans, a non-evasive scan that can detect liver problems, often caused by heavy drinking. This is especially useful in the Sikh-Punjabi community, where drinking excessively is associated with masculinity and celebration. For families, especially Punjabi females, the impact of heavy drinking can have destructive consequences, including domestic abuse, debt, and being rejected by the community. Our affected others group, Forward Together, offers kindness, understanding and solutions for families experiencing problems, and compassionately engages with loved ones that need support.
Our lived experience team work in the community alongside Recovery Near You and Public Health, building relationships with councillors, MPs, and strategic leads as well as clients and affected others.
ਸਾਡੀ ਟੀਮ ਆਪਣੇ ਤਜਰਬੇ ਨਾਲ ਕਮਿਊਨਿਟੀ ‘ਚ ਕੰਮ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ। ਅਸੀਂ ਰਿਕਵਰੀ ਨਿਅਰ ਯੂ ਤੇ ਪਬਲਿਕ ਹੈਲਥ ਨਾਲ ਮਿਲ ਕੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਹਾਇਤਾ ਦਿੰਦੇ ਹਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਨਾਲ ਹੀ ਕੌਂਸਲਰਾਂ, MPs, ਲੀਡਰਾਂ, ਕਲਾਇੰਟਾਂ ਤੇ ਪਰਿਵਾਰਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਚੰਗੇ ਰਿਸ਼ਤੇ ਬਣਾਉਂਦੇ ਹਾਂ।
From left: Vijay Sahota, Marcus Johnson, Kiran Kaur, Councillor Obaida Ahmed, Mark Hand, Karolina Sowinska
Radio & Media
Check our Announcements page for upcoming media appearances
Liver Scans with Recovery Near You & Public Health
Working closely with clinical treatment staff at Recovery Near You and the NHS Trust, we have been taking free liver fibro scans into the temples around Wolverhampton.
The fibro scan helps identify the early signs of liver damage, often unnoticed until serious conditions present. Alcohol is a primary cause of liver damage. The fibro scan is a non-invasive scan like an ultrasound. It's not painful and it measures the stiffness and fat content of your liver.
In the UK, the harm from alcohol consumption is estimated to be high among Punjabi‐Sikh men, and alcohol‐related hospital admissions are markedly higher in Indian men compared with white men. Heavy drinking is more common among Punjabi‐Sikh men than women, and this is a culturally accepted norm. Many Punjabi-Sikh men refuse help for drinking as it is a defining feature of masculinity in the community (Drug & Alcohol Review, 2020).
The fibro scan can help save lives by prevention of alcohol harm.
Alcohol Harm in the Punjabi-Sikh Community
SUIT’s Cultural Engagement Team deliver awareness and education in the Wolverhampton community, especially for individuals and families affected by harmful drinking. Traditions and cultural norms can make drinking alcohol a difficult subject for communities where it is used for celebration. Many people do not realise the harm it can cause until there are severe complications.
Our Punjabi-Speaking Support Worker Vijay Sahota also volunteers at New Cross Hospital’s Drug & Alcohol Liaison Team, where there are frequent admissions into the ward from Punjabi-Sikh men and women.
“Within Punjabi households, there is an unspoken acceptance of alcohol as a norm that continues to have a detrimental impact on all members of our community…At the tender age of seven, I witnessed plenty of drinking within my Punjabi household and attended countless Punjabi weddings that glamourised alcohol. As a child growing up in this environment, I learned that alcohol is socially acceptable. At family gatherings there is a trend where some men dip a finger into alcohol and place it into the mouths of young children. With taste being a powerful human sense, this behaviour exposes the sensibilities of the young to alcohol.”
Simran Kaur Bagri
“BAC-IN is an award-winning specialist drug and alcohol recovery service dedicated to empowering seldom engaged individuals, families, young adults and caregivers from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities. Founded in 2003 by individuals in recovery, our grassroots organisation embodies the spirit of community, resilience and heart-centred principles of lived experience leadership”.
Find out more about BAC-IN’s work in the Nottingham Community by clicking here
Head to YouTube to watch Jit of BAC-IN, Nottingham, talk about his own issues with addiction, the devastating impact that this life had on his family and friends and what he did to work through his addiction and turn his life around.
The short film was created by Jit and videographer Derek Roberts.
