Why do ethnic Chinese in the Netherlands underutilize mental health care services? Evidence from a qualitative study

Abstract

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Beliefs and perception about mental health issues: a meta-synthesis

“…Mental disorders were interpreted as a result of the wrath of God, curses, and evil spirits 51. People attributing them to spirits was found in a number of studies 41,44,47,51,52. Within a spiritual and supernatural domain, there was some distinction as these aforementioned studies attributed mental health issues to negative forces or the result of the anger of God, while other studies revealed the beliefs of people attributing mental health problems to some blessings and spiritual connection with God and getting special attention from nature 44,53…”

“…According to Dow,5 participants discussed and believed that there were biological reasons for the development of mental health problems. Similarly, in addition to largely discussing spiritual causes, some participants in another study noted medical reasons 52. Even some marginalized populations had awareness regarding medical causes despite their belief in the spiritual causes of mental illnesses 44…”

“…Treatment with psychotherapeutic and psychiatric medicines, and hospitalization following medical treatment, was discussed in many studies 2,47,52. However, there were some findings pointing only to psychiatric and medicinal treatment and not psychological treatment 2,15,44.…”

“…Consulting and sharing the problems with significant others, that is, family, friends, and loved ones, was another theme extracted from many studies 2,5,40,41,52. Some studies strongly suggested social support as a treatment option unless the mental health problem was very severe 46.…”

Organizing Language Interpreting Services in Elderly and Emergency Healthcare

“…Language barriers have an impact on both the patient and the healthcare system, creating health inequalities (Akhavan 2002;Liu et al 2015). Research has shown that the use of professional interpreters is the best way to achieve good communication quality when language barriers hinder communication (Flores 2005;Karliner et al 2007).…”