Within many cultures, mental health problems carry considerable stigma. This section examines how stigma creates substantial barriers to accessing professional and traditional support mechanisms. It also explores how mental health professionals might work towards the deconstruction of such barriers.

6 Items

Multicultural Mental Health Australia

Reducing stigma about mental illness in Transcultural settings: A Guide

2003

Though this research was carried out in Australia, the summary of findings gives a general insight into the stigmatization of mental health problems in cross-cultural contexts and makes a number of recommendations on how to counteract it within community settings.

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World Health Organisation

Reducing Stigma and Discrimination against older people with Mental Disorders

A Technical Consensus Statement, 2002

This paper makes recommendations on how to reduce stigma against older people with mental health problems. The paper concludes that local multi-agency working is essential in the development of national and local action plans. The paper is found under the Ageing and Mental Health Bibliography. Please note the WHO site is extensive and complications may arise in accessing this paper.

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Religious and Ethnic Group Influences on Beliefs about Mental Illness: A Qualitative Interview Study

Loewenthal, K., Cinirella, M., 1999

One section of this paper reflects upon the difficulty of discussing mental health concerns such as depression within traditional community support structures due to a fear of stigmatization.

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World Mental Health: Problems and Perspective

Seipel, M. M. O., 1999

A commentary on the WHO "Mental Illness in General Health Care: An International Study 1995" with a short section on the stigma and myths that surround the topic of mental health in many cultures.

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Mind

Mind Fact sheet: Mental Health of Chinese and Vietnamese People in Britain

This useful fact sheet gives some basic information on the mental health needs of Chinese and Vietnamese communities in the UK, covering issues such as cultural understandings of mental health and the stigma associated with mental health problems.

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Pathways and Barriers to Mental Health Care in an Urban Multicultural Milieu: An Epidemiological and Ethnographic Study.

Kirmayer, L.J., Galbaud du Fort, G., Young, A., Weinfeld, M., and Lasry, J.C, Culture & Mental Health Research Unit Report No. 6, Montreal, 1996., 1996

An extensive report that examines barriers to mental health care among Vietnamese, Filipino and Caribbean immigrants to Canada. Research findings identified major barriers to include a perception that available care providers would not understand or be prejudiced against the respondent_s culture, stigmatization and the desire to deal with mental health problems on one's own.

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