Farha Abbasi, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and director of the Muslim Mental Health Conference and Consortium at MSU, sat down with Russ White of WKAR to discuss her work to support minority mental health.
Dr. Abbasi is especially interested in cultural psychiatry and teaching medical students how to provide culturally appropriate care to Muslim patients. To help facilitate this, Dr. Abbasi works directly with the Muslim American community to encourage integration and address barriers that stigmatize mental healthcare.
Later this year, Dr. Abbasi will accept the Global Goals-Local Leaders Award from the Greater Lansing United Nations Association, which recognizes the significance of her work in mental health, given “to community members who have contributed to the development of any of the Sustainable Development Goals… through their work and/or volunteer service.” Dr. Abbasi is noted to have supported “Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being.”
Previously, Dr. Abbasi was named one of the top 15 women in the nation at the Women on the Frontlines: Celebrating Women Faith Leaders by Xavier Becerra and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Dr. Abbasi also was named as one of Crain’s Detroit Buisness Healthcare Heroes of 2024, which noted her efforts to create new safe spaces for students and faculty. This included “healing circles,” where participants shared about trauma in a supportive environment, her creation and teaching of her class, “The Cultural Psychiatry Curriculum,” which increases awareness of communities identifying as Black and Indigenous, as well as other communities of color, and her work to include LGBTQ+ communities in faith communities.
In addition, Dr. Abbasi was recently appointed to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Foundation’s Board of Directors. She also served on the APA’s Committee on Minority Mental Health from 2018-2020. She currently serves as an executive committee member of the World Psychiatric Association’s Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry.