Depression and anxiety among older Caribbean people in the UK: screening, unmet need and the provision of appropriate services

Concepts and Causation of Depression: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Beliefs of Older Adults

“…Complaints of loneliness were the focus of the responses from Black Caribbeans, although they were unique in the relatively modest emphasis that they placed on bereavement, family problems, and lack of family contact or support as a cause of depression. The view that older Black people in the United Kingdom reside within supportive extended family networks has been rejected as an inaccurate stereotype (Abas, 1996). Participants reflected that they now lacked the wider family presence that had existed in their country of origin.…”

“…Bhugra (1996) found that South Asian women of all ages had a clear understanding of psychosocial aspects of depression but were not predisposed toward medical models or explanations. Abas (1996) suggested that older Caribbean people construe mental disorders as secondary to other unmet needs (e.g., physical, social, spiritual).…”

Schizophrenia-like psychosis in African and Caribbean elders

“…The authors argue that referral bias by primary care and community physicians is unlikely, as evidenced by low contact rates for anxiety disorders and depression. This is of concern, however, as other researchers (Abas, 1996; Shah, 1998) have reported underdiagnosis of these disorders in ethnic minority populations, with a focus on psychotic and behavioural over affective symptoms.…”

Psychiatry of old age and ethnic minority older people in the United Kingdom

“…The CCSS was developed 'a priori' by ascertaining terminology used to describe emotional distress, 119 because older African Caribbeans rarely use the terms 'sad' or 'unhappy' to describe emotional distress, but they use other terms including 'being low spirited', 'fed up' and 'weighed down'. 117,119,120 In general, lower cutoff scores have been suggested on some scales like the GDS for African Caribbean older people in the UK. 117 The Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Scale 121 was used as a diagnostic instrument for depression in Gujarati, Somali and Bengali older people in London, 28,31 but data on its psychometric properties are not available.…”