Impact of Culture on Mental Health

Describe about The Influence of Culture and Society on Mental Health.

There are moments in each one of our lives when we go through depression or a state of devastation. Intense stress or personal, financial or marital issues can weigh us down and it may begin to affect us vastly. However, ignorance has caused some of us to think that these are serious mental issues. One’s careless comments on mentally disturbed person can get him to start thinking that something is seriously wrong with his head. This lie is built up and makes things worse for them and they begin to enact the role of being seriously mentally ill, because they so strongly believe it to be true.

Impact of Culture on Mental Health

In order to understand the impact of culture or society upon mental health condition, it is important to recognise the role played by personal attitude of people towards mental illness. Understanding our attitudes and the determinants of them will enable us to be of greater help to the Medical health providers and people who struggle with it. How a person reacts to the issue of mental illness depends on his family background, his religious beliefs, education, his exposure to global issues as well as our attitude towards destroying stigmas. Most of people’s understanding about mental illness either comes from religious teachings or the society’s belief about its emergence and its complexities.

One of the greatest dangers of such dogmatic beliefs is that, individuals avoid seeking any professional or medical help as a result of the shame attached to mental illness. Man is a social animal, and they fear being isolated in their social circles. Fear of losing social stature can really be a cause for denying a presence of an issue and thereby denying oneself of treatment. It is incredibly essential to understand the concept of mental illness in order to be of help to the people struggling with mental illness as well as the medical treatment institutions. Educating through movies, propagandas and seminars about mental illness can eliminate such dogmatic beliefs about mental illness and help cure many people.

A study conducted by Abdullah on ethno-cultural beliefs and mental illness shame in 2011 points out the tremendous impact of culture on mental illness. According to the review he mentions that a few American Indian tribes may shame only few mental illnesses while other tribes may shame every form of mental illness. Asian cultures where concepts about self control, conforming to accepted norms and social status are so prevalent, shaming mental illness in those countries would be done at a higher degree.

Effect of it on the relationship between Health Care Provider and the Client

In a study that was conducted in 2003 among Chinese Americans and European Americans, people who partook in the study were given a scenario where a person was diagnosed with a mental disorder or schizophrenia. Different groups of people were given different conclusion about the disease. Some were told that the disorder was genetic; some were told that it was partially genetic and to others that it was not genetic. Furthermore, they were asked about how they would react if one of their children married, dated or even reproduced with the subject. Chinese Americans greatly objected to such a thought due to genetic illness while among the European Americans the willingness to marry or reproduce increased who recognised the impact of cultural stigmatization of mental illness.

In an 18 month long observation carried out in the United States of America, 2010, among ethnographic groups, European American participants were more open to seeking medical care from mental health professionals and believed that mental illness and biomedical factors were connected while African American and Latino American focused more on non-biomedical factors. Though all the ethnic groups experienced some amount of shame about mental illness, the study showed a great shame among African Americans towards their mental illness. European American recognised the importance of medication in treating mental illness whereas African Americans expressed frustration about the emphasis on medications by the mental health professionals. Latino participants found medical diagnoses extremely damaging therefore they were more comfortable about referring to their mental health condition as lightly as possible to decrease the impact of shame attached to mental health in society. It is believed that African Americans and Latinos are less likely to receive any professional help as compared to European Americans due to the aspect of shame that they have culturally attached. Cultural investigations must be conducted in order to elevate the frequency of help taken from mental health organisations.

African Americans had a negative attitude towards mental health service providers citing that communication barriers, religious beliefs were all factors that contributed to their lack of trust in mental health services. In a 2007 study among African Americans it was reported that approximately 63% of them considered depression as a ‘personal weakness’, 30% of them preferred dealing with the condition alone and only a small group of people agreed to get help from professionals. It is vital to understand the mindset of African Americans with regard to mental illness while trying to deal with the problem of shame attached to mental illness and in an effort to improve health care services.

Stigma attached to mental health is different across different cultures and nations. Mental Health Surveys showed that stigma had a close connection with people suffering with disabilities which led to anxiety and mood swings. The survey was done among America’s, Asians, European, African and Middle Eastern countries which showed about 22.1% participants from developing countries and 11.7% participants from developed countries showed considerable embarrassment to their mental illness (Abdullah and Brown, 2011).

Culture shapes who we are, how we act and what we think. Therefore the impact of culture on our mental health is not an unknown concept. These factors not just shape us mentally but physically as well. It incorporates our social activities, diet, our assumptions about mental illness, ways to treat these illnesses and symptomatic behaviour.

The matter of emphasis here is, how these cultural and social determinants affect the way clients view health care service providers and how it affects a medical health care officer. A major aspect that a health care provider must keep in mind is that they must eliminate any form of stereotyping in dealing with their patients. Many a times stereotyping comes in the way of diagnosing the actual condition of the patient.

Another major impact of cultural factors affecting mental health is that since patients are in fear of being socially isolated they do not always say the complete truth to their health care providers, this causes their relationship to be more on a superficial level and under such circumstances the health care provider may not be able to fully help the patients.

Some patients who are a minority such as racial or ethnic groups find it difficult to seek help or treatment. The lack of proper representation about their condition with health care providers affects their improvement in a great manner.

When an African American seeks help they prefer or look for therapists from the same ethnic group. This makes them more comfortable in opening up about their struggles.

Mistrust is by far the most significant relational issue between a health care provider and the client. Mistrust is widely prevalent among minorities. A study conducted in the early 1980’s among African American and whites, which was known as Epidemiologic Catchment Area, showed that almost half of African Americans are scared of hospitalisation and treatment. The reason for this is mistrust in Clinicians which is a result of persecution faced by these racial groups in the past. There has been no change in our current situation either with regard to racism and discriminating among different groups of people. Furthermore there has been documented mistreatment by mental health professionals (Rockville, 2001).

Conclusion

In our society, we have a general stigma about mental illness. Infact such a stigma can be extremely devaluing, disgracing and deprecating. This kind of dishonouring notion can lead to segregating people based on our assumption of their mental conditions. It causes people to discriminate among individuals. What is worse is that people who are considered mentally ill are denied of their basic rights and responsibilities as citizens of their country and such a treatment is dehumanising. They worsen the condition of people who are fighting to make a comeback from the devastations or dealing with difficult emotional patterns. A person may be individually or structurally stigmatized. Individual stigmatization occurs when a person is denied resources such as jobs, houses on rent etc; Structural stigmatization is more like restricts a person’s ability to enjoy legal, economic and social services. According to a 2001 report published by the World Health Organisation, stigma is the single most difficult barrier to overcome in the society. One of WHO’s initiatives, Mental Health Global Action Programme strict advocates against stigma and discrimination. It is a part of their core strategies to improve the mental health condition globally. (Unite for Sight)

References

Rockville. (2001). The Influence of Culture and Society on Mental Health. Chapter 2: Culture Counts. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44249/

Abdullah, T. and Brown, T. L. (2011). Mental illness stigma and Ethnocultural beliefs, values, and norms: an integrative review. Clinical Psychology Review. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module7

Alarcon, R. D. (2009). Culture, Cultural Factors and psychiatric Diagnosis: Review and Projections. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755270/

White, R. C. (2011). The Culture of Mental Health: Does Culture matter in Mental Health. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-in-mind/201109/the-culture-mental-health

Geriatr, M. J. (2012). Cultural Beliefs and Mental Health Treatment Preferences of Ethnically Diverse Older Adult Consumers in Primary Care. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258470/

Daw, J. (2001). Culture Counts in Mental Health Services. American Psychological Association. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.apa.org/monitor/dec01/culture.aspx

Loewenthal, K. M, Lewis and C. A. Mental Health, Religion and Culture. The Psychologist. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-4/mental-health-religion-and-culture

Anonymous. Multicultural Issues and Mental Health. Retrieved 6 October, 2016 from https://www.responseability.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/4797/Multicultural-Issues-and-Mental-Health.pdf