Search results for ‘Subject term:"mental health problems"’ Sort:
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Mexican immigrant families: relating trauma and family cohesion
- Authors:
- SINGH Shweta, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Poverty, 15(4), October 2011, pp.427-443.
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Acculturation is a process of culture learning and behavioural adaptation that takes place when people are exposed to non-native culture. Using a sample of 122 immigrant men and women from the Mexican community based in the Chicago area, this pilot study explored the relationship between mental health, family functioning, and acculturation levels. Data was collected using the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, the Trauma Symptom Inventory, and the Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics. This article describes the study methodology, data analysis and results. It reports that the positive role of family in preventing or controlling trauma is a key finding of the research, with greater cohesion between family members being a source of support that helps them face mental health challenges. The authors discuss the findings and their implications for practice with Mexican immigrant families in the United States.
Services for people with disability from Chinese backgrounds
- Authors:
- FISHER Karen R., GLANFIELD Georgina
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy Research Centre Newsletter, 101, February 2009, pp.1, 4-5.
- Publisher:
- University of New South Wales. Social Policy Research Centre
Australia's largest migrant group, people from Chinese backgrounds, are among the least represented in the use of formal disability support services. This article summarises research findings on barriers to service support; the impact of culture, language and recent migration on preferences for service support; and responsiveness of service providers. The study aimed to inform future participatory research with people with disability and draw conclusions about possible policy directions to meet the preferences of people with disability from Chinese backgrounds.
The construction of religious and cultural meaning in Egyptian psychiatric patient charts
- Author:
- COKER Elizabeth M.
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Health Religion and Culture, 7(4), December 2004, pp.323-347.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This paper explores the use of religious symbols and metaphors in Egyptian psychiatric inpatient charts to portray psychiatric pathology and, by extension, the role that religious symbols play in constructing psychiatric illnesses. This represents a deconstruction of patient charts, assuming that the psychiatrist chooses aspects of family and patient discourse which best represent unexamined cultural ideas of person and illness, normality and abnormality. All of the psychiatrists writing the charts were Egyptian and shared much of the same cultural background with their patients, excluding their medical training. Therefore, while chart discourse is used to justify a psychiatric diagnosis, it is also the product of a shared cultural history; a tacit agreement about what constitutes a meaningful story. This paper focuses mainly upon discourse that has religious connotations, for the reason that these seemed to be more invested with cultural meaning than other delusional themes. These religious symbols and metaphors are interpreted in light of their symbolic associations with certain existential states, the family unit and with society as a whole.
Understanding the carers' experience: examples from a Ghanaian context
- Authors:
- QUINN Neil, EVANS Tony
- Journal article citation:
- International Social Work, 53(1), January 2010, pp.62-72.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Informal carers play a key role in mental health care. This article draws on the work of Goffman to analyse the experiences of carers in Ghana. The findings illustrate the complex nature of caring and the need to develop social work practice that acknowledges the social context of carers’ reality.
Family intervention and services for persons with mental illness in the People's Republic of China
- Author:
- YIP Kam-Shing
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Family Social Work, 9(1), 2005, pp.59-76.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Family services and intervention for people with mental illness is crucial in mental health services. Here, the author attempts to describe family intervention and services for persons with mental illness in the People's Republic of China. Family intervention and services like home-based care, guardianship network, family counselling, and psychoeducational programs are only preliminarily developed. Their effectiveness and challenges in future development are discussed. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre, Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580).
Mental health care: the Singapore context
- Author:
- OW Rosaleen
- Journal article citation:
- Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work, 8(1), March 1998, pp.120-130.
- Publisher:
- Times Academic
This article describes the remedial and preventive mental health care available in Singapore, with special emphasis on how world-views and other social-cultural factors influence diagnosis and psychosocial treatment of the mentally ill. Certain behavioural concepts typical to the local population and significant in help-seeking therapy, especially in the area of family counselling and support, are included in the discussion on in-patient and community care. Effective delivery and usage of services are shown to be dependent on the ability to blend professional knowledge with the world-views and cultural expectations of the service-user.
Culture, migration, and identity formation in adolescent refugees: a family perspective
- Author:
- RABIAU Marjorie Aude
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Family Social Work, 22(1), 2019, pp.83-100.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Looking through a cultural lens at the family system level, expressions of distress in adolescent refugees are explored using the constructs of postmigration cultural identity formation and cultural idioms of distress. Asylum-seeking minors have heightened risk of developing mental health problems. Family is an important protective factor, and a sustained lack of parental figures further increases these young peoples’ vulnerability to mental health problems. The family plays a significant role as an anchor to cultural identity. Case studies from a cultural consultation service in a clinical psychiatry department were used to illustrate two potential trajectories regarding identity formation and the impact on expressions of distress and family functioning. Case analysis also emphasized the clinical relevance of exploring meaning making and cultural idioms of distress in the face of trauma and loss at the individual and the family level. Clinical implications focus on a family and a cultural lens to emphasize the importance of contextualizing expressions of distress in adolescents who had to flee from war-affected areas. (Publisher abstract)
Consideration of cultural factors in working with Chinese American families with a mentally ill patient
- Author:
- KUNG Winnie W.
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 82(1), January 2001, pp.97-107.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
This American article discusses cultural beliefs of Chinese American families in relation to their experience of a mentally ill relative. Somatic factors and psychosocial stresses as causes of mental disorders are found compatible to the belief systems of these families. The stress-vulnerability dialysis is recommended as the explanatory model to be adopted by clinicians when they communicate the causes of mental illness to these families. Ways to harness support from extended families and community resources are also suggested. Also examined is a viable working alliance between these families and clinicians in terms of a therapeutic bond, consensual treatment goals, and relevant tasks. Finally, elements of a family intervention model compatible with cultural beliefs of these families are proposed.
The importance of being early
- Author:
- VALIOS Natalie
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 20.7.00, 2000, pp.30-31.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Reports on how an innovative project in east London is aiming to help prevent boys from Bangladeshi backgrounds developing emotional and mental health problems.
ABC of mental health: mental health in a multiethnic society
- Author:
- DEIN Simon
- Journal article citation:
- British Medical Journal, 23.8.97, 1997, pp.473-476.
- Publisher:
- British Medical Association
Looks at the way cultural factors relate to mental illness and how they can affect treatment.