Mental Health Research In Asia And The Pacific

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.

Geographically and demographically Asia is a huge region with a large number of societies and cultures, each affected by their own unique problems including over-population, major natural disasters, poverty and changing social and economic factors. Inevitably this means that different mental health needs have developed across the region. Colonialism, globalization, industrialization and urbanization have brought major demographic and cultural shifts in the region but clinical mental health practices and services and societal attitudes to mental health issues vary enormously. This handbook surveys the state of the current psychiatric care field across the whole Asia-Pacific region. Focusing on individual countries, each chapter will include: A summary of factors affecting the practice and provision of psychiatric care, including cultural attitudes to mental health issues Coverage of the conceptualisation, causation and prevalence of mental health issues in society An overview of mental health care services and systems available and workforce training Coverage of country specific innovative practices and folk therapies As the first major reference work on psychiatric care in Asia this book is an essential resource for scholars and students researching mental health in Asia as well as psychiatrists and other mental health professionals working in the region.

Following on the previous volume, Mental Health in Asia and the Pacific, which was co-edited with Milton Lewis, this book explores historical and contemporary developments in mental health in China and Chinese immigrant populations. It presents the development of mental health policies and services from the 19th Century until the present time, offering a clear view of the antecedents of today’s policies and practice. Chapters focus on traditional Chinese conceptions of mental illness, the development of the Chinese mental health system through the massive political, social, cultural and economic transformations in China from the late 19th Century to the present, and the mental health of Chinese immigrants in several countries with large Chinese populations. China’s international political and economic influence and its capabilities in mental health science and innovation have grown rapidly in recent decades. So has China’s engagement in international institutions, and in global economic and health development activities. Chinese immigrant communities are to be found in almost all countries all around the world. Readers of this book will gain an understanding of how historical, cultural, economic, social, and political contexts have influenced the development of mental health law, policies and services in China and how these contexts in migrant receiving countries shape the mental health of Chinese immigrants.

This volume collects papers presented at a 1969 conference, "Social Change and Cultural Factors in Mental Health," held at the University of Hawaii's East-West Center. Editor Lebra succinctly sums up the two themes of the collected papers: (1) in underdeveloped regions, discover the prevalence of mental health disorders and, (2) in "more developed areas," understand and control ourselves before irreparable damage is done to mankind. The volume represents an admirable attempt at cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural communication--no mean undertaking. It will undoubtedly constitute a major source in its field, and is likely to be consulted by specialists in medicine and behavioral science alike. In this regard, editor Lebra, the conference participants, and the East-West Center have made a valuable contribution to our cross-cultural understanding of "psychiatric epidemiology."

This volume is the result of a conference on mental health research in Asia and the Pacific held at the East-West Center, University of Hawaii, in 1966, at which a distinguished multidisciplinary group of investigators from Australasia, Europe, and North America explored such questions as how Asian countries had made use of Western psychiatric theories and techniques to understand similarities and differences in behavior in cross-cultural settings, as well as attempted to reach some agreement on common denominators in human behavior regardless of cultural differences. The editors, Dr. William Caudill, a social anthropologist, and Dr. Tsung-yi Lin, a psychiatric epidemiologist, both of whom participated in the conference, have done an admirable job of organizing the work of their colleagues (and keeping their opinions from intruding) into three topical sections which present the proceedings and discussion in such a way as to be most helpful and economical to the reader.