Barriers to Mental Health in the South Asian Community
Barriers to Mental Health in the South Asian Community
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Issue Date
2021-11-01
Authors
Singh, Balraj
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Abstract
The continued advocacy for seeking out mental health support has been increasing over the last number of years. However, much research pertaining to mental health does not account for ethnic minorities. Belonging to the South Asian population, the Punjabi community originates from Punjabi, India. This state of Punjab is known for its agriculture and vast lands but is also recognized by high suicide rates among the population. As years progressed, member of the community traveled across the world to find a place where they can live a happy life. The increased stressed that come with acculturation and lack of cultural awareness leads to increased mental health illnesses among the community. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and understand the help seeking behaviour in South Asian immigrants, provide an in-depth analysis on the influences that cause barriers to seeking help, contribute to the pre existing literature pertaining to help seeking in South Asian population and provide mental health professionals with an increased resource and knowledge base that is culturally sensitive and will allow a more progressive method of providing culturally diverse clients, adequate care. The study examined previous literature pertaining to barriers in help seeking and concluded that the factors causing the formation of 'barriers' in help seeking behaviours among South Asian immigrants includes colonial impacts, cultural differences, environmental impacts, and lack of education on mental health.
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Keywords
mental health , South Asian , Punjabi , barriers , help-seeking , cultural differences