Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of culture in the conceptualization of mental illness and the phenomenology of mental illness across cultures. Mental health professionals are increasingly dealing with a multicultural patient population and there is an urgent need for awareness of...

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Main Author: Temitope OGUNDARE
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Edizioni FS 2020-03-01
Series:Journal of Health and Social Sciences
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author Temitope OGUNDARE
author_facet Temitope OGUNDARE
author_sort Temitope OGUNDARE
collection DOAJ
description The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of culture in the conceptualization of mental illness and the phenomenology of mental illness across cultures. Mental health professionals are increasingly dealing with a multicultural patient population and there is an urgent need for awareness of the influence of culture in understanding patient’s expression of distress, assigning symptoms to a diagnostic category and planning treatment in culturally appropriate ways. Cultural bias can lead to misdiagnosis and have devastating consequences on patients. This paper highlights the need for cultural competency in mental health service delivery and outlines ways mental health professionals can think about the issue of culture in their practice.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 2499-2240
2499-5886
language English
publishDate 2020-03-01
publisher Edizioni FS
record_format Article
series Journal of Health and Social Sciences
spelling doaj-art-b02bc6189fe94da29b161deb02d2c5002025-01-18T18:20:29ZengEdizioni FSJournal of Health and Social Sciences2499-22402499-58862020-03-015102303410.19204/2019/cltr6Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health deliveryTemitope OGUNDARE0MD, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USAThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of culture in the conceptualization of mental illness and the phenomenology of mental illness across cultures. Mental health professionals are increasingly dealing with a multicultural patient population and there is an urgent need for awareness of the influence of culture in understanding patient’s expression of distress, assigning symptoms to a diagnostic category and planning treatment in culturally appropriate ways. Cultural bias can lead to misdiagnosis and have devastating consequences on patients. This paper highlights the need for cultural competency in mental health service delivery and outlines ways mental health professionals can think about the issue of culture in their practice.culture; cultural competency; mental health.
spellingShingle Temitope OGUNDARE
Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
Journal of Health and Social Sciences
culture; cultural competency; mental health.
title Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
title_full Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
title_fullStr Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
title_full_unstemmed Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
title_short Culture and mental health: Towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
title_sort culture and mental health towards cultural competence in mental health delivery
topic culture; cultural competency; mental health.
work_keys_str_mv AT temitopeogundare cultureandmentalhealthtowardsculturalcompetenceinmentalhealthdelivery