“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
~ Nelson Mandela
Depression in minorities
There are many minority patients who attend primary health care and struggle with the weight of depression. It may be a great challenge for GP’s to understand and relate to minority patients that go to them for mental health care. Differences in culture, gender, identity, social norms, and religion may also add additional challenges for GP’s in understanding and treating patients who seek care. This post will cover what needs must be addressed in giving non biased care to people from foreign countries who’s backgrounds and cultures differ from the GP’s treating them. Data on this research has been collected from focus groups in north Sweden and analysed by qualitative content analysis.
The analysis consisted of three themes which were ” Realizing the background”, “Struggling for clarity”, and “Optimizing management”. Patients earlier lives were unknown, making accuracy a challenge. Researchers struggle with processing diagnostics were due to conflicts between new and older generation norms, cultural frictions, and reactions to trauma. It is crucial to have a patient dialogue about illness and social context. Multicultural tools general practice care tools are needed in depressive spectrum care. Gp’s must be aware of their own conceptions in order to avoid under or over estimating depressive symptoms in people.
Outcome
Understanding that cultural and religious beliefs will vary in patients seeking help for depressive symptoms is important for GP’s. Opening their minds to a more global and less biased view is needed. It is crucial that GP’s understand that many patients were victims of violence, have experienced war, have had very traumatic experiences and this is important to keep in mind when helping minorities with depression.
Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723088/
