Mental Health Needs And The Process Of Cross Cultural Adaptation

One of the biggest contributors for poor healthcare is the stigma against mental health. This stigma allows healthcare providers to view those with a mental illness as having low relevance, thus creating disinclination towards providing adequate resources and/or care. This negative stance, based on misinformation and prejudice creates those that have a mental illness to lose their self confidence. Because of this loss, people with mental illness decide not to contribute to their health or livelihood. In the past fifty years, many advances have been made in mental healthcare. However, with the attached stigma, many people choose to not seek out treatment.

THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON MENTAL HEALTH AND HOW THIS CAN AFFECT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEN THE HEALTH CARE PROVIDER AND THE CLIENT

At the individual level, lack of proper treatment for poor mental health and mental illness has a detrimental effect. At a population level, society also suffers from the burden resulting from the lack of treatment options for poor mental health and mental illness, due to loss of productivity from those crippled by poor mental health and mental illness. Evidence has begun to emerge showing that lack of treatment for mental illness -specifically depressive disorders - has been linked “with increased prevalence of chronic diseases.” Currently it is estimated about 26% of adults in the United States suffer from depression.

Cultural bias can arise when “mental health assumptions, assessments, and interventions that were developed in one culture is implemented in a totally different one” (Pedersen & Marsella, 1982).

With the advancement of health care around the world mental health has made great strides toward improvement. Even with these great improvements, many countries differ in their mental health practices. Whether it be for economic reasons, cultural reasons or demographics, the practices in each country varies. Three modern day countries that follow different mental health practices, including treatment, diagnosis, and prevalence of disorders, are Germany, Syria, and the United States.

After reading and rereading the list, I found few that we use that were not listed. Although some of these are similar, they do have enough different information to be noted. First, a leisure assessment was not mentioned. This can be used as part of the SWOT (GCU, 2014) analysis as well as built upon in other areas of treatment. Another assessment is the spiritual assessment. As a treatment center that uses the 12-steps and believes in the Higher Power, this is an important piece of information. It assists in showing the person’s background and starting point. We have a specific cultural assessment also.

A large fraction of the United States population is made up of groups of minorities including immigrants. Due to persistent social and racial disparities, U.S. minorities’ mental health issues are not usually diagnosed or treated that makes them increasingly vulnerable to be at risk for other health conditions (Figure 3.). This additionally reduces their economic productivity and income, which is already lagging behind the majority of Americans. An important factor that prevents this population from receiving the mental services is limited knowledge and lack of appropriate access to the mental health services (Chapa, 2004). According to Chapa (2004, p 4.) “for those who do receive mental health interventions, the appropriateness and quality

The primary aim of the available mental health services is to assist individuals who suffer from mental problems and help them to gain access to the support that they need. These interventions will empower, and at the same time, promote inner strength for those who suffer from mental health problems. Moreover, the role of health care provider is to uncover both the short and long term

Treatment access is limited further by uneven distribution of mental health provider within the United Stated whom is concentrated in the highly populated, rich, and city-based areas. Therefore, those living in lower income and /or areas away from cities areas are less likely to appropriate treatment (Hugo, Boshoff, Traut, Zungu-Dirwayi, & Stein, 2003).

It has also been supported that implemented Trauma focused CBT in a community setting had positive effects. Apart from reducing trauma symptoms, Trauma focused CBT promoted reduced externalized and internalized behaviors for up to 1 year.

Seeking support systems for mental health is difficult enough due to societal stigma surrounding mental illness and without help, can lead to fatal consequences such as suicide (Crabtree & Haslam, 2010). Although they are not as immediately fatal as cancer and heart disease might be, they should receive a greater priority. For example, health programs focus on these chronic diseases and have strategies and goals for them to be reduced in the population, but for mental disorders, especially in Western contexts, there is significantly less healthcare budget and resources, but more community-based measures (Lawrence & Kisely, 2010). For the systemic issues of the mental healthcare system, it may be suggested that they attempt to lessen the discrepancy between the two by making a more integrated care system instead of a separated one. Lawrence & Kisely emphasize the fact the advantages to this system would be the reduced stigma and access for mental health serviced.

The mental health intervention and prevention focus impacts the quality of life. The lack of assessment and underreporting of depression results in lower quality of life and increases disease mortality (Stoop, et al., 2015). Stoop, et al., report (2015) purposed the solution to the lack of mental health care is to incorporate “stepped care intervention”. The report asserts that depression is not recognized by the majority of health care providers as well as not reported by those that do recognize it. Furthermore, the report asserts that “stepped care intervention” is effective therapeutically and financially. The method calls for screening, intervention of education and therapy, followed by continued monitoring (Stoop et al., 2015). Limitation in the method are lack of participation attributed to stigma of mental illness but the effect size of decreased depression shows promise (Stoop et al.,

The field of healthcare that I would choose would be mental health. I have always wanted to work in this field and have a special place in my heart for those suffering from mental illnesses such as depression. Mental illnesses come with a plethora of challenges that I would have to deal with. For instance, those with mental illnesses face stigma and are looked down at in society. The very label of being mentally ill makes it difficult to empower clients. The sociocultural perspective “suggests that labeling people as mentally ill typecasts them and limits their ability to obtain other roles” (DuBois & Miley, 2014, p. 335). To further compound this debilitating label, those who are mentally ill do not simply have one issue. Interpersonal relationships,

The treatment and prevention of mental illness can be difficult, and as with physical illness, no case or result is the same for everyone. Treatment varies for each illness, as well as for individual client needs and level of severity. With the numerous choices of treatment available today, people around the world have a greater chance at not only preventing or decreasing mental illness, but also the opportunity to enhance their mental health through the public health model of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.

Barriers to mental health care in the region have included the shortage of education for primary health care providers about mental disease, the deficiency of trained mental health care specialists, the shortage of resources in improving countries, and the censure of mental disease in Middle Eastern cultures2,4. Instruction for the treatment of depression has not been developed in most countries of the region