'Black and minority ethnic communities lack confidence in mental health services', according to the National Service Framework for Mental Health published by the Department of Health in 1999. Cultural Diversity, Mental Health and Psychiatry examines how and why this situation has come about, and makes specific practical, often surprising, suggestions for changing the status quo. In his latest and most critical analysis, Suman Fernando reflects on the current situation in light of his own personal experience, academic research and anecdotal reports. He weaves together themes of immense importance for the future of psychiatry and mental health services in a multi-cultural setting, exploring: * the nature of racism and its permeation into mental health services * the inside story of the struggle against racism in statutory and voluntary sectors of the mental health system * the history of psychiatry and the role of spirituality, holistic thinking, psychotherapy and Asian traditions of medicine. Trainees, practitioners, and managers of mental health services will profit from the practical application of Fernando's latest ideas, and students and academics will benefit from his theoretical guidance.

The Handbook of Multicultural Mental Health, Second Edition, discusses the impact of cultural, ethnic, and racial variables for the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, service delivery, and development of skills for working with culturally diverse populations. Intended for the mental health practitioner, the book translates research findings into information to be applied in practice. The new edition contains more than 50% new material and includes contributions from established leaders in the field as well as voices from rising stars in the area. It recognizes diversity as extending beyond race and ethnicity to reflect characteristics or experiences related to gender, age, religion, disability, and socioeconomic status. Individuals are viewed as complex and shaped by different intersections and saliencies of multiple elements of diversity. Chapters have been wholly revised and updated, and new coverage includes indigenous approaches to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental and physical disorders; spirituality; the therapeutic needs of culturally diverse clients with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities; suicide among racial and ethnic groups; multicultural considerations for treatment of military personnel and multicultural curriculum and training. - Foundations-overview of theory and models - Specialized assessment in a multicultural context - Assessing and treating four major culturally diverse groups in clinical settings - Assessing and treating other culturally diverse groups in clinical settings - Specific conditions/presenting problems in a cultural context - Multicultural competence in clinical settings

Based on a recently completed project of cultural consultation in Montreal, Cultural Consultation presents a model of multicultural and applicable health care. This model used clinicians and consultants to provide in-depth assessment, treatment planning, and limited interventions in consultation with frontline primary care and mental health practitioners working with immigrants, refugees, and members of indigenous and ethnocultural communities. Evaluation of the service has demonstrated that focused interventions by consultants familiar with patients’ cultural backgrounds could improve the relationship between the patient and the primary clinician. This volume presents models for intercultural work in psychiatry and psychology in primary care, general hospital and specialty mental health settings. The editors highlight crucial topics such as: - Discussing the social context of intercultural mental health care, conceptual models of the role of culture in psychopathology and healing, and the development of a cultural consultation service and a specialized cultural psychiatric service - Examining the process of intercultural work more closely with particular emphasis oto strategies of consultation, the identity of the clinician, the ways in which gender and culture position the clinician, and interaction of the consultant with family systems and larger institutions - Highlighting special situations that may place specific demands on the clinician: working with refugees and survivors of torture or political violence, with separated families, and with patients with psychotic episodes This book is of valuable use to mental health practitioners who are working in multidisciplinary settings who seek to understand cultural difference in complex cases. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners, primary care providers and trainees in these disciplines will make thorough use of the material covered in this text.

This is the definitive textbook on global mental health, an emerging priority discipline within global health, which places priority on improving mental health and achieving equity in mental health for all people worldwide.

As culturally relevant psychiatry becomes common practice, the need for competent and culturally relevant forensic psychiatry comes to the forefront. This volume, written by one expert in cultural psychiatry and another in forensic psychiatry addresses that need. By combining their expertise in these areas, they are able to develop and create a new body of knowledge and experiences addressing the issue of the cultural aspects of forensic psychiatry. Beginning with an introduction to cultural and ethnic aspects of forensic psychiatry, this volume will address basic issues of the practice, as well as more detailed areas ranging from the various psychiatric disorders to intensive analysis and discussion of how to perform forensic psychiatric practice in a culturally relevant and competent way. Also the book suggests methods for continued awareness and sensitivity to issues of cultural and ethnic diversity in the field.

The publication of the Cultural Formulation Outline in the DSM-IV represented a significant event in the history of standard diagnostic systems. It was the first systematic attempt at placing cultural and contextual factors as an integral component of the diagnostic process. The year was 1994 and its coming was ripe since the multicultural explosion due to migration, refugees, and globalization on the ethnic composition of the U.S. population made it compelling to strive for culturally attuned psychiatric care. Understanding the limitations of a dry symptomatological approach in helping clinicians grasp the intricacies of the experience, presentation, and course of mental illness, the NIMH Group on Culture and Diagnosis proposed to appraise, in close collaboration with the patient, the cultural framework of the patient's identity, illness experience, contextual factors, and clinician-patient relationship, and to narrate this along the lines of five major domains. By articulating the patient's experience and the standard symptomatological description of a case, the clinician may be better able to arrive at a more useful understanding of the case for clinical care purposes. Furthermore, attending to the context of the illness and the person of the patient may additionally enhance understanding of the case and enrich the database from which effective treatment can be planned. This reader is a rich collection of chapters relevant to the DSM-IV Cultural Formulation that covers the Cultural Formulation's historical and conceptual background, development, and characteristics. In addition, the reader discusses the prospects of the Cultural Formulation and provides clinical case illustrations of its utility in diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Book jacket.