Published on: 18 July 2024
To kick off the first week of South Asian Heritage Month (18 July to 17 August), Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating its diverse workforce by sharing colleagues’ stories and shining a spotlight on their lives.
This year’s theme is ‘free to be me’. Dr Sowmya Maiya, a Consultant Psychiatrist at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, is of South Asian heritage and discusses what she does in her role, her background and what being South Asian means to her.
Here, Sowmya highlights how her cultural differences have helped her and her colleagues at work – and shares the importance of making time to celebrate your background amongst the busyness of everyday life.
What is your job role?
I work as a Consultant Psychiatrist on an acute mental health inpatient ward, working with patients who often have a severe mental disorder.
I work with patients from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures, and it gives me great joy to be working with them.
Tell us something about your family and background.
My family are from India, specifically from South India. I moved to the UK around 20 years ago mainly to pursue my career within psychiatry. I have trained in Psychiatry and have been working in the NHS for almost 20 years. In between I have worked briefly in India. I currently live in Derby with my husband and two children.
What does being South Asian mean to you?
I am very proud of my heritage and identify with my core identity as a South Asian person as I spent most of my formative years of life in India. I always say I have two places I can call home. In my culture, I call India my ‘Janmabhoomi’ – which means homeland or birthplace – and the UK is my ‘Karma Bhoomi’, which is my place for actions and duties, where I now work for the NHS and have created a home. I am tied to these two places. I am proud of my culture and heritage, and I talk about it comfortably with my peers and colleagues.
How does your South Asian background shape the work you do for the NHS?
My cultural background has helped me to communicate and better understand patients from a similar ethnic background. For example, with patients from a similar background to my own, I communicate with them in their language as I speak a variety of different South Asian languages. This has helped me to support my team, and ultimately provide better care for our patients. I have provided a cultural perspective to the assessment and treatment plan which in turn helps in the delivery of better care. For those from a different ethnic background, I understand how difficult a language barrier can be. So I take the time to support that individual, which has helped me to build a better rapport with my patients.
Aside from my medical background, I am also a trained classical dancer. Dancing has been a big part of my life and this has shaped who I am as a person. I appreciate all forms of art such as painting, singing, creative writing, etc. I encourage all my patients on the inpatient unit to take up a form of art as a form of therapy.
This year’s theme is ‘free to be me’, what does that mean to you and is there something that you are proud of in terms of your heritage and working for the Trust?
This year I have been invited to participate and perform in a few South Asian cultural events across the country. Participating in these events makes me feel particularly proud because I can showcase my culture and heritage more openly and support others in my community to do the same.
I am also proud as I can balance both my busy work schedule and still practise parts of my culture and heritage, which I believe is an important thing to do. I am encouraging all my friends and colleagues who are of an ethnic background to do the same and be openly proud of who they are when it comes to their cultural heritage.
Working at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been a true blessing for me as there is a lot of cultural diversity across the workforce, and all professionals with different ethnic backgrounds are encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences, which means they are appreciated.
Are you working on anything exciting currently in your job?
In addition to working in an acute healthcare setting, I have also taken up the role of mentoring young professionals and international graduates from different countries, including those from South Asian regions. I help them with their exam preparations and provide them with opportunities to do observational roles within a hospital setting, which ultimately supports their integration into the NHS.
I have been lucky and blessed with lots of opportunities that have been provided to me by my mentors, which is incredibly humbling. It makes me feel proud to do the same and support our ethnically diverse workforce, including welcoming and supporting those of South Asian heritage and others into the Trust.
