Home
About Everything you Need
Mission Statement
Policies Making it Tick
Equal Opportunities
i-Links Weblinks
General
F.A.Q's Questions
Sitemap When You're Lost
Contact Get in Touch
Mental Health Inform and Debate
Substance Misuse Educational Material
Support Ideas
Viewpoint Blog
Social Theory Explanations
Personal Journeys Your Experiences
Wordspace Forum
Generally, everyone who has a diagnosed mental illness experiences some difficulties. These can consist of peer rejection, problems with attaining employment, or difficulties in grocery shopping. However, people from ethnic minority communities may experience additional difficulties such as accessing services.
Additionally, people from ethnic minority communities are statistically more likely to diagnosed and admitted to a psychiatric hospital for severe mental illness. Different issues appear to affect different groups of people; leading to a failure in the treatment, support, and care that the individual then receives. This is demonstrated in the following examples:
Statistically, African Caribbean people are more likely to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital with a psychosis than any other group
It is generally thought that one significant reason for this is because of a fear of an incorrect diagnosis or institutional racism. The potential of this occurring can discourage people from this group from seeking appropriate intervention soon enough. This also results in people from this group disengaging themselves from services, and consequentially leading to deterioration in their mental health; which then requires hospital treatment. This disengagement and fear of discrimination possibly contributes to African Caribbean people being more vulnerable to sectioning ( a compulsory hospital admission), because mental health deterioration can result in a person becoming a danger to either themselves or others; a significant factor used in the process of detaining someone under the mental health act.
Approaches used in the Western world for treating people are often considered culturally unsuitable for Asian people
This could be because psychiatric support does not take into account (or recognise) some of the different ethnic backgrounds and cultures that exist in Britain. Additionally, western approaches to treatment fail to recognise the differences in Asian approaches to care and support.
Research appears to suggest that young Asian women are particularly at risk of suicide (with Indian and Pakistani women experiencing the highest suicide rates)
First generation Asian parents may not recognise western approaches to treatment and mental illness. Therefore, the existence of mental illnesses may be undiagnosed, leading to a lack in the provision of treatment and support: consequently the family then endure the pressures of meeting the care needs of the person in question—without support. Moreover, because Asian people generally live in larger families than white majority groups, there can be a greater impact on a child’s mental health. That is, a child is less able to understand and cope with any stigmatisation, loss, or pressure put on the family if a member has an untreated mental illness.
Statistics on mental illness in Chinese people appear to be comparatively low
This could be for two reasons: one, Chinese people tend to have stronger family support networks; two, the presence of stigma could prevent people from seeking appropriate intervention and treatment (affecting the statistics).
White people from outside the United Kingdom are included as ethnic minorities
For example, White Irish communities appear to demonstrate much higher rates of alcohol dependency and depression; with an apparent vulnerability to suicide.
Written on Monday, 25 August 2008 00:00 by Companion
