Attitudes towards Mental Health and Treatment in Asian Indian Culture
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Authors
Sekhon, Parminder
Issue Date
2012
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Asian Indian immigrants are a distinct population in the Asian American community and their unique mental health care needs continue to need to be addressed (Che & Rizvi, 2009; Durvasula & Mylvaganam, 1994; Patel, 2003; Rao, 2003). These unique needs may include psychological stressors that accompany immigration to a new culture (Rao, 2003). Although many of them seek medical treatment when something is physically wrong, they often do not identify a need to seek treatment for psychological issues. Research indicates that Indian people tend to overlook their mental health care issues in the initial stages(Rao, 2003). Only when a mental health issue becomes of serious concern will they seek help. In addition, those who access mental health services report being dissatisfied with the services they receive due to the lack of cultural sensitivity in the health care providers. This study explored Asian-Indian attitudes toward mental health symptoms and treatment. Twenty-seven Asian Indians completed a questionnaire and answered questions about two clinical vignettes. The respondents who were more acculturated were expected to more readily recognize mental health symptoms and the need to seek mental health services. In addition, income and education were expected to be factors which would be associated with accessing mental health services. Two results were significant: their acculturation level influenced their satisfaction with services, and higher income influenced their ability to seek help. This finding may show that Asian Indians who are more acculturated may be less concerned about stigma and the cultural competence of mental health providers. Despite the lack of significance of the other hypotheses, the results of this study are largely congruent with previous literature. Findings pertaining to the clinical vignettes showed that when given two scenarios, one very severe mental health issue (paranoid schizophrenia) and one less severe (social anxiety), Asian Indians were much more likely to recognize the severity of the problem in the extreme and would seek help from mental health professionals. When presented with symptoms of social anxiety, many of the participants did not view it as a mental health problem. A majority reported they would seek family, friends and neighbors, or a doctor or hospital rather than seek mental health services. The fact that so few in the sample accessed services may be an indication that Asian- Indians are still reluctant to seek out mental health services due to stigma and an unwillingness to do anything that would shame the family despite their acculturation or income level. This study was conducted because of the need to find out whether those who accessed services were satisfied with them. Past research has shown that Asian Indians are dissatisfied with services because of a lack of culturally competent mental health professionals. One out of eight participants who had accessed mental health services had been dissatisfied with the services for this reason. Therefore, there appears to be a need for cultural competency training among mental health care 0. providers. In order to understand the needs of the Asian-Indian population, future research is needed to replicate the study with a much larger sample size. A larger sample would hopefully access a larger sample of Asian-Indians who accessed services and could report on the cultural sensitivity of the service providers. Overall, this study hopes to underscore the need for better training of therapists who treat Asian-Indian clients, so no matter their acculturation level, they will be more inclined to seek mental services when needed.