Lisa - Culture, Stigma and Positive Psychology Flashcards
Culture and Mental Health:
Example of influences
⭐️Social🎉, political 🇦🇺 and cultural 👳 context matters
- Gender
- Globalisation
- Social inclusion
- Migration
- Social change
- Religion
- Sexuality
⭐️⚠️Each affect our understanding of the origins and nature of mental illness; how we view ourselves, our choices to see help, and the type of health we seek.
For these reasons that we must ensure that treatment programs are culture-sensitive and appropriate for its target patients. 🚫If failed to do so, you risk MISDIAGNOSIS and the PERPETUATION OF CLINICAL STEREOTYPES 👎 (This has been seen in numerous studies documenting elevated rates of misdiagnosis of schizophrenia among African Americans.
Important Cultural Considerations
⭐️Cultural IDENTITY of the individual
⭐️Cultural EXPLANATIONS of the individual’s illness (eg differences in use of key terms between cultures; medical background)
⭐️Cultural factors related to PSYCHOSOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS and levels of functioning (eg stressors that they may experience and how this affects their view of health, illness, accessing care and explanations for illness)
⭐️Cultural elements of the relationship between the individual and the clinician
🌎Each impact on mental health systems, accessing mental health care and the provision of mental health care.
Cultural (culturally-bound) syndrome
⭐️A cluster or group of co-occurring, relatively invariant symptoms found in a specific cultural group, community, or context.
-It may or may not be recognised as an illness within the culture (eg it may be labelled in various ways) but such cultural patterns of distress and features of illness may nevertheless he recognisable by an outside observer.
Eg Ataque de nervios: among individuals of Latino descent (acute anxiety; screaming and shouting; attacks of crying)- no 1:1 with a disorder in the DSM-5.
Cultural idiom of DISTRESS
⭐️A linguistic term, phrase, or way of talking about suffering among individuals of a cultural group (eg similar ethnicity and religion) referring to shared concepts of pathology and ways of expressing, communicating, or naming essential features of distress.
Eg:
- may be thought of as “thinking too much”
- may be an explanation for the causation of anxiety, depression and somatic problems
- as an idiom for psychosocial stress it may be indicative of interpersonal and social difficulties (eg marital difficulties, or having no money to take care of children)
Cultural explanation or perceived cause
It is a label, attribution, or feature of an explanatory model that provides that provides a culturally conceived aetiology or cause for symptoms, illness, or distress (eg Maladi moun: “humanly caused illness”; interpersonal envy and malice cause people to harm their enemies by sending illnesses such as psychosis, depression, social or academic failure, and inability to perform activities of daily living).
Culture and Symptom Expression:
Psychosis
- Visual hallucinations more common in developed than developing countries
- Paranoid delusions more common now whilst delusions of wealth and grandeur were more documented in the 30s in the U.S.
- Is now a strong association between paranoia and circumstances involving victimisation and powerlessness amongst immigrants to the UK
Culture, Access to, and Engagement with Services
✖️There are language differences, challenges with transportation, navigation of referral processes and processes around payment which can impeded access to and engagement with services.
✖️⚠😥👎️Conundrum: many factors hinder people from accessing treatment; but treatments themselves are not necessarily equipped to address the needs of all.
⭐️Very evident in mental health and indigenous Australians. 😥
Stigma
-Negative attitudes about mental illness
-Impact on treatment seeking, compliance with treatment
⭐️Single most important barrier to quality of life of individuals with a mental illness and their families- even more than the illness itself 😥 (eg unemployment, ⬇️self-esteem, lack of quality housing, impediments to recovery, weak social supports)
😥♻️Creates a vicious cycle of discrimination and social exclusion
Can be unsubtle/overt (eg refusing someone a job due to history of mental illness) or,
Subtle/covert (eg considering disability associated with mental illness not as ‘real’ as disability associated with losing a leg to cancer)
⭐️Social distance (Haslam) and mental illness
Strategies to address stigma
✔️Information provision/education: upskill people
✔️Public health messages: more global; aiming to prevent early experiences, modelling and observational learning
✖️👎😥There are stigmatising attitudes within our clinicians AND also towards clinicians/mental health professionals
Positive Psychology 😁
⭐️The study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing/optimal functioning of people, groups and institutions.
⭐️The study of positive emotions, positive character traits and enabling institutions.
❗️Positive experiences and traits are not simply the opposite of negative experiences and traits; the relief of suffering likewise does not lead to wellbeing
Positive Psychology:
Areas of research
⭐️😁The POSITIVE life: life of enjoyment
⭐️😁The GOOD life: life of engagement (flow)
⭐️😁The MEANINGFUL life: life of affiliation
Positive emotions
Future oriented: optimism, hope, faith, trust and confidence.
Past-oriented: satisfaction, contentment, fulfilment, pride and serenity.
Present-oriented: momentary pleasures and enduring gratifications.
⭐️How can we maximise these?
⭐️What influences our expression and feelings of positive emotions?
⭐️How can we mitigate experiences of negative emotions and maximise time experienced with positive emotions?
Features of Flourishing 🌱🌷🌺
😊positive emotion 😊engagement 😊meaning 😊self-esteem 😊optimism 😊resilience 😊vitality 😊competence 😊emotional stability 😊positive relationships
Individuals who flourish…
Are those who are socially connected, have high social trust and value creativity, new ideas, loyalty, helping others, and enjoying life. 😊
BUT those who are least likely to be flourishing are those who value money, status, security and traditional religious values. 👎
Nations that flourish are characterised by…
😊relative wealth 😊low income inequality 😊high employment 😊good healthcare system 😊high welfare expenditure 😊good governance 😊high social trust
