ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with the delivery of healthcare to people with chronic, enduring mental illness in relation to discrimination, racism, prejudice, ethnicity and culture. The psychological impact of racist experiences has been comprehensively reviewed by Bhugra and Ayonrinde and Bhugra and Cochrane, who delineate a pathway from the experience of racism to the development of common mental disorders, especially of depression. Hussain and Cochrane have critically reviewed a number of claims about cultural and religious factors that might affect the recognition of mental illness in South Asians that is Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani and Sri Lankan people living in this country. These often unquestioned claims frequently refer to three major themes: stigma, somatisation and the use of traditional healers and religion as treatment for depression. In traditional non-Western societies there are both medical and non-medical frameworks for dealing with mental health problems. Culture might affect both the structure and content of schizophrenic disorders.