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Does A Community's Culture Affect Their View of Mental
Health?
The short answer is "Yes!" Culture has been described as a common heritage or set of beliefs, norms, and values (DHHS, 1999).
It refers to the shared attributes of one group. All races and communities have a culture.
A community's culture can account for how residents communicate and report symptoms.
Certain sets of symptoms are more common in certain communities than others largely due to what is "acceptable" to the general public.
For example, if a community generally believes that it is OK to be sad at times, then that is OK to admit because it is accepted.
However, if a person has more than sadness - maybe despair or deep/dark depression for a long time with thoughts of harming themselves or others - they may withhold that information because it is not generally accepted in that community.
Another example would be an attitude that when you have problems you just "pull yourself up by the boot straps and just get over it."
If that is the general attitude (and often unspoken belief in the community) then talking about emotional pain and seeking help for that will be limited.
The cultures that people come from shape their mental health and affect the types of mental health services they use.
There are topics that are taboo in some places and often mental illness is one of them. Therefore, when a few people are willing to talk about it, awareness increases and the stigma is reduced. When the stigma is reduced, people are more likely to seek treatment.
©2008 Ron Trusler is Chief Executive Officer of Central Plains Center. He can be reached at 806.293.2636 or by writing
ron@clplains.org
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