Maristan

Grant Type: General Operating

Duration: January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023

Organization Overview

Maristan is a mental health organization dedicated to serving the Muslim community through community outreach and education, trainings, research and advocacy, and clinical work. To expand awareness surrounding Muslim mental health, Maristan seeks to revive the legacy of the bimaristans, the world’s first treatment centers for mental health and holistic healing.

Summary

Maristan is a community-based organization addressing the mental health needs of the Muslim community. Maristan’s unique approach to Muslim mental health draws upon innovative research conducted at the Stanford Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab (MMHIP) to inform educational programs, trainings, advocacy, and religiously congruent clinical care. Maristan synthesizes MMHIP’s research, implementing empirically based practices to inform better community interventions, raise awareness, tackle stigmas, and change the narrative around mental health in Muslim communities.

Since July 2021, Maristan has organized 15 free educational online events for Muslim communities with national and global attendance. Their national eight-hour Certification Community Suicide Response Trainings, tailored to Muslim religious and community leaders, provide invaluable instruction in suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. Since the program’s launch in 2021, 150 national trainees have graduated from an inaugural virtual training and three in-person trainings in Minnesota, Texas, and New York. Maristan seeks to engage in internal and external community outreach and has already built coalitions with Yaqeen Institute, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, American Muslim Health Professionals, ICNA-Relief, Rabata, Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, and other Muslim institutions.

Year founded: 2021

Location: Fremont, CA

Website: https://www.maristan.org/