Access To Mental Health Care In South Asia

Asia is by far the largest continent in the world in terms of area with population exceeding 3.5 billion and has dozens of cultures, religions, languages and ethnic groups. As a result of its highly varied political systems, Asia also spawns a wide variety of health care systems including mental health care systems, often based on historical roots and at times colonial heritages. The people who suffer from mental or neurological disorders in the continent form a vulnerable section of society and often face stigma, discrimination and marginalization in all societies, and this increases the likelihood that their human rights will be violated This book tackles the issue of mental health legislation in South Asia. The first of its kind, it addresses an issue that is necessary for protecting the rights of people with mental disorders and serves as an essential text for reinforcing mental health policy in South Asia. It is a timely addition to our global understanding of mental health and how different regions address it.

The mhGAP Intervention Guide (IG) is a clinical guide on mental neurological and substance use disorders for general health care workers who work in non-specialized health care settings particularly in low- and middle-income countries. These health care workers include general physicians family physicians nurses and clinical officers. The mhGAP programme provides a range of tools to support the work of health care providers as well as health policy makers and planners The proposed guide is an adaptation of the mhGAP Intervention Guide to be used in humanitarian settings. These settings include a broad range of acute and chronic emergency situations arising from armed conflicts natural disasters and industrial disasters and may include mass displacement of populations (eg refugees and/or internally displaced people).

How can ethnographic studies be generalized, in contrast to concentrating on the individual case? Noblit and Hare propose a new method for synthesizing from qualitative studies: meta-ethnography. After citing the criteria to be used in comparing qualitative research projects, the authors define the ways these can then be aggregated to create more cogent syntheses of research. Using examples from numerous studies ranging from ethnographic work in educational settings to the Mead-Freeman controversy over Samoan youth, Meta-Ethnography offers useful procedural advice from both comparative and cumulative analyses of qualitative data. This provocative volume will be read with interest by researchers and students in qualitative research methods, ethnography, education, sociology, and anthropology. "After defining metaphor and synthesis, these authors provide a step-by-step program that will allow the researcher to show similarity (reciprocal translation), difference (refutation), or similarity at a higher level (lines or argument synthesis) among sample studies....Contain(s) valuable strategies at a seldom-used level of analysis." --Contemporary Sociology "The authors made an important contribution by reframing how we think of ethnography comparison in a way that is compatible with the new developments in interpretive ethnography. Meta-Ethnography is well worth consulting for the problem definition it offers." --The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease "This book had to be written and I am pleased it was. Someone needed to break the ice and offer a strategy for summarizing multiple ethnographic studies. Noblit and Hare have done a commendable job of giving the research community one approach for doing so. Further, no one else can now venture into this area of synthesizing qualitative studies without making references to and positioning themselves vis-a-vis this volume." -Educational Studies

This far-reaching volume analyzes the social, cultural, political, and economic factors contributing to mental health issues and shaping treatment options in the Asian and Pacific world. Multiple lenses examine complex experiences and needs in this vast region, identifying not only cultural issues at the individual and collective levels, but also the impacts of colonial history, effects of war and disasters, and the current climate of globalization on mental illness and its care. These concerns are located in the larger context of physical health and its determinants, worldwide goals such as reducing global poverty, and the evolving mental health response to meet rising challenges affecting the diverse populations of the region. Chapters focus on countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia plus Oceania and Australia, describing: · National history of psychiatry and its acceptance. · Present-day mental health practice and services. · Mental/physical health impact of recent social change. · Disparities in accessibility, service delivery, and quality of care. · Collaborations with indigenous and community approaches to healing. · Current mental health resources, the state of policy, and areas for intervention. A welcome addition to the global health literature, Mental Health in Asia and the Pacific brings historical depth and present-day insight to practitioners providing services in this diverse area of the world as well as researchers and policymakers studying the region.

"The authors are to be commended for a book which should be very helpful for mental health professionals taking care of South Asian patients. The book uses case histories to illustrate a range of issues, which may come up in the treatment of this ethno-cultural group. The cases cut across genders, age groups, socioeconomic groups, diagnostic categories, and other clinical matters pertaining to abuse and domestic violence among South Asians born in South Asia and in the United States. The cases illustrate issues related to immigration, acculturation, stigma, access to care, and familial and intergenerational problems. The cases make teaching points about the impact of culture on clinical presentation and treatment, focusing on how culture and religion can be both a hindrance and an asset. The authors describe how to use cultural understanding in diagnosis and treatment" (Iqbal Ahmed MD, FRCPsych, UK).

This contributed volume is the first-known collection of essays that brings together scholarly review, critiques, and primary and secondary data to assess how sociocultural factors influence health behavior in South Asian women. The essays are authored by working scholars or healthcare practitioners from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. In the chapters, the contributors acknowledge social, economic, and environmental factors to recommend improved interventions and health policy for women of the region. Studies on South Asian women’s health have targeted clinical evidence, with less attention on social and environmental factors driving health recovery and health outcomes. The South Asian region, more than any other part of the world, is driven by traditional and cultural forces that are possibly the most significant factors determining a woman’s health awareness and her rights to adopt healthy behavior or pursue health recovery. Women of the region share a common culture and political history, and there are benefits to understanding their problems collectively in order to design joint improvements in health policy for women. Salient, but neglected, socio-political areas that influence health behavior and health outcomes in women of the region are covered in the chapters including: Oral Narrations of Social Rejection Suffered by South Asian Women with Irreversible Health Conditions Women’s Role in Decision-Making for Health Care in South Asia Poverty, Health Coverage, and Credit Opportunities for South Asian Women Refugee, Displaced, and Climate-Affected Women of South Asia and Their Health Challenges The Political Sociology of South Asian Women’s Health The Sociology of South Asian Women’s Health is a useful resource for students, researchers, and academicians, especially those interested in public health, gender, social policy, and occupational management, as well as healthcare practitioners, administrators, health and public policy-makers, government officers, and scholars of South Asian studies.