Somali<\/a> psychiatry resident currently,\u201d Farah said. “I’m going to be one of the few psychiatrists of Somali-descendent entering this field and for me that’s huge.\u201d<\/p>\nCurrently, she works with Somali patients and is immediately able to connect with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSitting with a Somali patient, being able to connect with them with our culture, our language, and our heritage it just adds another dynamic to our relationship, and I think it\u2019s so important to have providers who look like you and can resonate with you and part of your experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Farah said growing up she\u2019s always been the only person who looks like her. She\u2019s hopeful diversity will continue to grow within residency programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely need more people of color in our program here at Hennepin and the other programs here too. Our patients need that,\u201d she said<\/p>\n
Farah said they need to have more conversations in the Somali community to destigmatize mental health. She also said more work needs to be done to make resources more accessible to the Somali community and debunk myths.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone who is from a marginalized community, being Somali American, I\u2019ve seen people suffer in silence and it\u2019s really important for me to be a voice for people whose voices have been silenced for a really long time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Farah said she grew up in Hennepin County. Her interest in mental health peaked in college when she learned something shocking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI usually tell people mental health is what introduced me into becoming a doctor and a lot of that was due to the fact that the largest mental health facility is actually a county jail,\u201d Farah said. \u201cSince then, I\u2019ve always kind of been intrigued about how does law play in mental health in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
She started volunteering in the emergency department at HCMC. Now, she volunteers at the Hennepin County Jail.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticularly for patients in the in carceral system, I feel like we\u2019ve failed them quite a bit in the sense that these patients are quite ill,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s all about bridging that gap being able to put myself where I feel like I\u2019m really needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farah said what she loves about mental health is the ability to help people feel better.<\/p>\n
When she finishes up her residency program, she wants to continue working in the Twin Cities and give back to her community that helped raise her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important for me to give back to the very community that brought me here today,\u201d Farah said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hamdi Farah is the only Somali psychiatrist resident at Hennepin County Medical Center. MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Getting the medical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114775672953058383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}