Muslim Women's Network UK set up a national faith and culturally sensitive service in January 2015. This evaluation if for year 6 of the helpline operate January to December 2020. The impact of Covid is also included in this report such as on helpline operations and nature of calls. Although the full report can be down loaded above. Key kinds included:
We received 3124 contacts (phone, email, texts etc) and there were 1261 beneficiaries
We were contacted about 43 different issues
Top 5 issues included mental health, domestic abuse, divorce, housing / homelessness, and faith / spirituality
Other significant issues included marriage, relationships, money / finance, isolation / loneliness, children / custody and covid related enquiries.
Compared with previous year (2019) - domestic abuse calls rose by 16% and mental health calls increased and was the top issue that people called about with calls about isolation / loneliness also contributing to poor mental health
Most (71%) contacted helpline about themselves
Third sector and professionals (11%) and friends / family (9%) also called on behalf of others
Where we had information about marriage status, 25% of those callers were in nikah only marriages, which are not legally recognised.
46% of the callers also had a second underlying issue in addition to the primary reason for calling helpline
22% of the callers were experiencing three issues for which they needed help and advice
10% of callers had an insecure immigration status
In 26% of calls the police were involved and in 14% of these the helpline involved the police
In 15% of calls the social services were involved and in 30% of these the helpline involved them
Although calls were received from over 60s and under 18s most callers were in their 20s, 30s and 40s
The ethnic background of the callers varied but those of Pakistani background were the largest group
The callers were from across the country with most from London and West Midlands
Contact via email / web-chat increased due to Covid
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