Psychiatric Bulletin, 31(10), October 2007, pp.368-369.
Publisher:
Royal College of Psychiatrists
Providing better mental healthcare for the Black and minority ethnic population often requires much more than the efforts of the individual clinician. Problems may range from getting the right interpreters when they are needed, for as long as they are needed, to accessing psychotherapy and social service help for refugees and asylum seekers. Most of us have little training in negotiating differences in illness models, diagnostic labels and preferred pathways to care and treatment for a multicultural society All of these difficulties and more are reflected in the literature on disparities in care between ethnic groups in the UK. These problems are not the fault of clinicians but reflect the need for a concerted, coherent effort at an institutional level.
Providing better mental healthcare for the Black and minority ethnic population often requires much more than the efforts of the individual clinician. Problems may range from getting the right interpreters when they are needed, for as long as they are needed, to accessing psychotherapy and social service help for refugees and asylum seekers. Most of us have little training in negotiating differences in illness models, diagnostic labels and preferred pathways to care and treatment for a multicultural society All of these difficulties and more are reflected in the literature on disparities in care between ethnic groups in the UK. These problems are not the fault of clinicians but reflect the need for a concerted, coherent effort at an institutional level.
Subject terms:
mental health services, patients, racism, black and minority ethnic people, decision making, diagnosis, discrimination;
British Journal of Psychiatry, 18(9), September 2003, pp.184-186.
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
The need for accurate information about the mental health problems of multicultural communities requires valid measures of mental health for use in a number of languages and cultural contexts. Measures of psychopathological symptoms leading to a diagnosis have been especially criticised for their universal application, without attention to their limitations across cultures. Yet, measures
The need for accurate information about the mental health problems of multicultural communities requires valid measures of mental health for use in a number of languages and cultural contexts. Measures of psychopathological symptoms leading to a diagnosis have been especially criticised for their universal application, without attention to their limitations across cultures. Yet, measures are crucial to assess recovery and the performance of services, and to take account of carer and user views. The authors summarise the main challenges in the cultural adaptation of such measures in our work with adults and adolescents of South Asian, African and Caribbean origin.
Subject terms:
interpreting, mental health problems, multicultural society, psychiatry, severe mental health problems, South Asian people, user participation, user views, carers, black and minority ethnic people, diagnosis, ethnicity;