ABU DHABI // Dr Faisal Al Nowais and occupational therapist Anupama Vijay smiled with pride as they led a visitor through the Ramadan Bazaar they organised to sell their psychiatric patients’ handicrafts.
“Come here, come here,” Dr Al Nowais said, gesturing for the guest to follow him toward a group of paintings, including a framed portrait of Sheikh Khalifa resting on an easel.
“One of our patients is a really good painter, so she painted that and this.”
The paintings were among dozens of handmade items displayed in the reception area of the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.
The arts and crafts were created by about 30 adult patients from the Behavioural Science Pavilion (BSP) in occupational therapy classes.
For the past year, Ms Vijay and Dr Al Nowais have been displaying their patients’ arts and craftwork in a series of public exhibitions in the hospital for the Do It Yourself project.
The most recent sale was at a special Ramadan bazaar this week.
“The art project was part of the occupational therapy, and expression is something that is very important for a lot of these patients because their illness make them unable to express themselves properly sometimes,” said Dr Al Nowais.
“They have their own internal world that is always busy and complex and active to the point where they really can’t express themselves at all.”
Ms Vijay said: “They expressed [themselves] in their art.”
The classes are part of the broader occupational therapy programme, led by Ms Vijay with the assistance of a small team of volunteers.
Participants, both in and outpatients, take part in daily activities that include therapy sessions, group exercise, social-skills development, computer literacy, cooking, beautification and English classes.
“What we do is we train the patient to be independent in their function,” said Ms Vijay. “To improve their functional abilities, to make them be independent in everything.”
The BSP is made up of different wards – acute, progress, long-term, outpatient, forensics and chemical dependency – that can accommodate up to 90 patients.
Members of the Do It Yourself project come from the long-term inpatient and the outpatient day-centre units, and are selected by Dr Al Nowais and Ms Vijay.
“We deal with patients who are chronic psychiatric patients,” said Dr Al Nowais.
“We are talking about people with schizophrenia, people who are bipolar, people who have cognitive dysfunction or mental retardation and so on, but most of the people who did the work here are chronic schizophrenics.”
To be selected for the group, a patient has to be assessed as “stable,” he said.
“Stable means that they are not going to be too distracted by their psychotic symptoms, they’re not hearing voices, they’re not relapsing, they’re not suicidal,” said Dr Al Nowais.
The patients share 50 per cent of the profits, while the other half helps to cover the cost of materials. The project is also part-funded by the hospital.
Paying the patients cash for their work is a significant part of the scheme, said Dr Al Nowais.
“They don’t get a lot of money and some of them come from wealthy families, so it’s not like they need the money. It’s really the realisation that they made something with their own hands, and they got some kind of monetary thing out of it.”
Ms Vijay said: “And the cash is something that everybody is happy about. You give them something, it doesn’t have as much meaning, but cash, there’s a lot of meaning.”
“And I feel the patient should not be sympathised with for this. You know, ‘Oh, they’re a patient, that’s why we need to give to them’.
“They should be applauded for the work they do. They should be given appreciation for the quality works that they do.”
The next Do It Yourself bazaar will be held in October at the BSP in Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.
rpennington@thenational.ae
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6.20pm: West Acre
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Warlight,
Michael Ondaatje, Knopf
UAE players with central contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Adnan Mufti, Mohammed Usman, Ghulam Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Qadeer Ahmed, Amir Hayat, Mohammed Naveed and Imran Haider.
Match info:
Portugal 1
Ronaldo (4')
Morocco 0
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
