Similar to other reviews within the last 4 years, a thorough review by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, published in December 2011, found that compared to delivery of an unintended pregnancy, abortion does not increase women's risk of mental health problems. In contrast, a meta-analysis published in September 2011 concluded ...

Until now, error and conflict adaptation have been studied extensively using simple laboratory tasks. A common finding is that responses slow down after errors. According to the conflict monitoring theory, performance should also improve after an error. However, this is usually not observed. In this study, we investigated whether the ...

Abstract Twenty predictions about the future of residential services to the mentally retarded are presented. These changes imply: (1) an entirely new model of residential services; (2) increasing continuity between residential and nonresidential services; and (3) increasing acceptance of cost-benefit rationales in the decision to offer residential or other services.

Immigrant Latino youth experience mental health problems in the U.S. Cultural beliefs and knowledge may influence help-seeking behaviors. Two hundred thirty-four immigrant Latino respondents between 12 and 44 years of age completed a questionnaire assessing knowledge of and cultural beliefs regarding mental health resources for adolescents, symptoms, and help-seeking. Multivariate analyses ...

Community psychology emphasizes the importance of context in the study of people's lives, and culture influences this in profound ways. To develop programs that effectively address diverse communities' problems, it is essential to recognize how Euro-American human service systems are understood and responded to by the many different people being ...

There is a special emphasis today on integrating traditional healing within health services. However, most areas in which there is a system of traditional healing have undergone colonization and a number of pressures suppressing tradition for hundreds of years. The question arises as to how one can understand today's tradition ...

This article takes as its starting point the thesis that there has been a shift towards emotional openness in Anglo-American societies and that, as a result, we are increasingly at ease with talking to professionals, those who are trained to listen, when faced with difficulties in our emotional lives. Such ...

Social service agencies and practitioners are continually challenged to provide services that are effective for, and reflective of, cultural and religious diversity. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 50 social work practitioners in four Canadian cities to gain insight into methods of practice that are culturally sensitive for work with Muslim ...

Federal, state, and local policymakers and funders have increasingly organized human service delivery functions around the selection and implementation of empirically supported interventions (ESIs), under the expectation that service delivery through such intervention frameworks results in improvements in cost-effectiveness and system performance. This article examines the validity of four premises ...

: Recent immigrants face various difficulties in adjusting to western countries and show a high prevalence of mental disorders. Access to a culturally appropriate community mental health centre (CMHC) is crucial for immigrants (Bhui et al., 2007). The Bologna West Transcultural Psychiatric Team (BoTPT, Tarricone et al., 2009) is one ...

This paper examines the experiences and perspectives of ex-military servicemen in the UK. It focuses specifically on the complex links between emotional distress and various constructions of 'masculinity' in a military context. Aspects of military culture that exacerbate vulnerability and also those that are protective to mental health are identified ...

We are often confronted with the dilemmas of interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. How do we ensure that we meet their needs, if they have some barriers to communicating those needs? This project explores the communication mechanisms used by mental health clinicians, to explore how they modify their ...

Studies of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for schizophrenia demonstrate that African-Caribbean and Black African patients have higher dropout rates and poor outcomes from treatment. The main aim of the study was to produce a culturally sensitive adaption of an existing CBT manual for therapists working with patients with psychosis from ...

Recognizing and appropriately treating mental health problems among new immigrants and refugees in primary care poses a challenge because of differences in language and culture and because of specific stressors associated with migration and resettlement. We aimed to identify risk factors and strategies in the approach to mental health assessment ...

OBJECTIVE: To review the challenges facing Indigenous and mainstream services in delivering residential rehabilitation services to Indigenous Australians, and explore opportunities to enhance outcomes. METHODS: A literature review was conducted using keyword searches of databases, on-line journals, articles, national papers, conference proceedings and reports from different organisations, with snowball follow-up ...

Despite efforts to reduce the stigma of mental health services across branches of the United States military, lasting change among this warrior culture remains an uphill battle. Difficulty affecting change can be attributed in part to stigma associated with psychological services and largely, mental health providers' difficulty tailoring traditional models ...

Previous research has suggested that Asian Americans (AAs) are less likely to mobilize social support, and find support to be less helpful, when compared with European Americans (EAs). In a 10-day daily diary study of AA and EA college students, we hypothesized that AAs would activate support less frequently than ...

The following study has focused on the production of empirical knowledge regarding homosexuality in the Brazilian social-cultural context. Little is known about this population in Brazil or in others in Latin America. Investigation and comparison of prevalence of mental disorder, search for mental health services and quality of life between ...

The focus of this paper is the intercultural process through which Open Mole and trauma-related mental illnesses are brought together in the postconflict mental health encounter. In this paper, I explore the historical dimension of this process by reviewing the history of Open Mole, and the ways in which it ...

The exploration of the impact of religiosity on mental health is an enduring, if somewhat quiet, tradition. There has been virtually no exploration, however, of the influence of atheism on mental health. Though not a "religion," atheism can be an orienting worldview that is often consciously chosen by its adherents, ...

In this study, we examined help-seeking pathways and help-receiving experiences among Latinos, a population that has been shown to under-utilize mental health services. We used the qualitative approach of dual mode of analysis to explore the experiences of 13 Latino men and women who utilized formal as well as informal ...

US demographic and sociopolitical shifts have resulted in a rapidly growing need for culturally competent neuropsychological services. However, clinical neuropsychology as a field has not kept pace with the needs of ethnic minority clients. In this discussion we review: historical precedents and the limits of universalism in neuropsychology; ethical/professional guidelines ...

ISSUE ADDRESSED: In Australia, asthma is more prevalent among Indigenous than non-Indigenous people. Awareness of asthma and compliance with management plans are poor, as is engagement with health services in general. The study explored whether offering culturally appropriate music lessons could enhance asthma awareness and engagement to improve asthma and ...

The paper begins with a summary of severe mental health difficulties I had in recent years. The narrative then turns to the crisis of representation in the social sciences which gave rise to autoethnographic ethics. Autoethnographic writing is compared and contrasted with realist writing, the former being seen to be ...

OBJECTIVE: South Asians are the largest visible minority group in Canada, but little research is available, particularly on the older adults and their use of Western health services. This study examined the effects of the predisposing, enabling, need, and cultural factors on the use of Western health services by older ...

Despite a dramatic growth of Asian communities in North America, the cultural norms, values, and practices of Asians are generally unknown in the professional community, posing a significant challenge in diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems. This article addresses the major mental health concepts prevalent among Southeast Asians and ...

Evidence suggests that the current mental health system is failing in the provision of quality mental health care for diverse children and families. This paper discusses one critical domain missing to improve care: serious attention given to diversity, culture, and context. It discusses what we mean by understanding culture and ...

OBJECTIVES: Culture has a number of potential impacts upon health and well-being. This project was undertaken to assess the potential impacts of the Liverpool 2008 European Capital of Culture programme upon mental well-being, so that positive effects can be maximized and negative impacts reduced, in order that health and well-being ...

Despite the widespread use of accreditation in many countries, and prevailing beliefs that accreditation is associated with variables contributing to clinical care and organisational outcomes, little systematic research has been conducted to examine its validity as a predictor of healthcare performance. To determine whether accreditation performance is associated with self-reported ...

The social construction of gender is an important concept for better understanding the determinants of mental health in women and men. Going beyond physical and physiological differences and the traditional biomedical approach, interdisciplinary study of the complex factors related to culture and society, power and politics is necessary to be ...

It appears that mental illness was present in Australian Aboriginal culture prior to European colonization of Australia but was, most likely, a relatively rare occurrence. The much greater prevalence of mental illness and suicide in the current Aboriginal population is a reflection of the significant disruption to Aboriginal society and ...

This article aims to raise awareness of some of the psychosocial, emotional, and sociocultural challenges faced by many of the youth who have gravitated to the Ruth Ellis Center and Affirmations Center, both in the Detroit area. Those identifying as Black lesbians express their struggles of negotiating several identities at ...

BACKGROUND: Providing culturally competent and person-centered care is at the forefront of changing practices in behavioral health. Significant health disparities remain between people of color and whites in terms of care received in the mental health system. Peer services, or support provided by others who have experience in the behavioral ...

The lack of culturally appropriate health and mental health care has contributed to the large number of African American youth and families involved in the child welfare system. This article reviews the consequences of the insufficient access to culturally sensitive, evidence-supported interventions for African American foster youth. The authors describe ...

Botswana has seen rapid socioeconomic development since the 1970s that has contributed to the erosion of the values, institutions, and practices that are believed to be supportive of mental health. In this paper, the author argues that the aspects of culture that are supportive of mental health have been diluted ...

Medication errors are associated with significant morbidity and people with mental health problems may be particularly susceptible to medication errors due to various factors. Primary care has a key role in improving medication safety in this vulnerable population. The complexity of services, involving primary and secondary care and social services, ...

BACKGROUND: The study of the pathways into care as a social process subject to a wide range of influences is needed to build appropriate and effective mental health services for culturally diverse societies. MATERIAL: Grounded theory and situational analysis of 21 in-depth interviews explores the help-seeking behaviour of ultra-Orthodox Jewish ...

This descriptive study presented an overview of culturally sensitive mental health services and potential barriers for immigrant Canadians. A semi-structured question-naire was developed and administered to 173 patients who attended a large cross-cultural psychiatry outpatient clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. RESULTS: indicated that only 21% of patients were able ...

BACKGROUND: Migration may have consequences on the mental health of those who enter a new cultural environment. In Spain, migration has increased tenfold in 20 years. It is important to study how these migrants are interacting within this new context and which variables hinder their personal and social development. AIMS: ...

This study investigated a new 2-factor construct, termed cultural congruence, which is related to cultural competence in the delivery of mental health services to ethnic minority clients. Cultural congruence was defined as the distance between the cultural competence characteristics of the health care organization and the clients' perception of those ...

BACKGROUND: Culture is important to how populations understand the cause of mental disorder, a variable that has implications for treatment-seeking behaviour. Asian populations underutilize professional mental health treatment partly because of their endorsement of supernatural causation models to explain mental disorders, beliefs that stem from their religious backgrounds. AIMS: This ...

OBJECTIVE: The authors explored the ethnocultural values of a group of senior psychiatry trainees in the northwest region of England. METHODS: The authors surveyed senior psychiatry trainees using the Personal Values Questionnaire and analyzed responses under the headings of ethnic stereotypes, ethnocultural service issues, and perceptions of racism. They also ...

The Arctic has been a subject to various socio-cultural changes; indigenous people living in the region have experienced injustice and oppression in different forms. Furthermore, there are currently various new social, political and environmental challenges. It has been assumed that the continuous socio-cultural transition has an influence on indigenous people's ...

In July 2005, New Mexico placed all publicly funded behavioral health services under the management of one private corporation. This reform emphasized the provision of evidence-based, culturally competent services. Methods. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 189 administrators, staff, and providers were carried out in 14 behavioral health safety-net institutions ...

Most of Australia's population live in urban environments and have ready access to high-quality specialist surgical services. The 1% of Australians (210,600 people) who live in the Northern Territory of Australia sparsely occupy more than one-sixth of Australia's land mass and have varied cultural backgrounds. The organization of surgical services ...

This article presents a conceptual model of organizational cultural competence for use in mental health services that resulted from a comprehensive review of the research literature. The model identifies four factors associated with cultural competence in mental health services (community context, cultural characteristics of local populations, organizational infrastructure, and direct ...

BACKGROUND: Few studies have explored influences on mental health of migrants moving between non-Western countries. METHODS: Focus group discussions were used to explore the experiences of Ethiopian female domestic migrants to Middle Eastern countries, comparing those who developed severe mental illness with those remaining mentally well. DISCUSSION: Prominent self-identified threats ...

A growing literature highlights established and developing approaches to infant mental health assessment and treatment. Like other evidence-based and theory-based interventions, real world application of these approaches requires an understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations of infant mental health as well as consideration of cultural, systemic, and logistical factors. ...

Competing models of cultural integration present significant challenges and opportunities in the provision of public services to multi-ethnic, multi-cultural populations. In some countries, the mental health needs of refugees, voluntary migrants and ethnic minority groups are met by dedicated mental health services separate from generic services. For other countries, such ...

This article addresses the issue of underutilization of treatment services by Asian Americans. Although Asian Americans continue to be the fastest growing ethnic minority in New York City, they are reported to underutilize substance abuse treatment services. However, much of the underutilization may be attributed to cultural and language barriers ...