Cross-cultural psychiatric assessment

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Different cultures vary in their perceptions of mental illness (Karno & Edgerton, 1969), which can affect their utilisation of orthodox psychiatric facilities (Padillaet al, 1975; Sue, 1977). Mental health services may be seen by ethnic minorities as challenging the value of traditional support systems, reflecting dominant Western cultural values and harbouring implicitly racist psychological formulations. The clinician-patient interaction may become fraught with misunderstandings if the two parties come from different cultural backgrounds and bring distinct cultural expectations to the encounter.