Alana Lopez

G H 547

Reading Response Week 8

As I am currently TA for the Global Mental Health course (G H 456/556), this week’s readings
were particularly salient for me (not only because the Kieling article was also assigned to
students in that course as well). Mental health is so often overlooked in children and
adolescents, yet has important implications for the entire lifespan. I think one really important
aspect that the Dorsey et al article brings up is this idea that the cultural context needs to be
understood before interventions can be successful. Mental health conditions are often posited
as universal, despite evidence that suggests these conditions may be experienced differently or
may even be totally irrelevant in cultural contexts outside of the ones in which they were
developed and identified. For example, typical symptoms or even effective treatments may be
significantly different even for the same overarching mental health condition in different
situational and cultural contexts. I think another important aspect to bring into this
conversation is the role of mental health stigma. Dorsey hints at the role this might play when
the investigators included information how often mental health challenges were mentioned,
indicating the importance mental health needs held with this community. I think though, in
order to develop mental health interventions it is important to understand how stigma might
influence the way these interventions must be crafted. Some examples might be straying away
from key words related to mental health such as “therapy,” “counseling,” etc in a context
where mental health conditions might be highly stigmatized. In addition, one must consider
things like group versus individual interventions, intervention location, role of the family,
among others. Stigma also might influence the way mental health conditions present
themselves. For example, in situations where physical health concerns are seen as legitimate
yet mental health ones are not, symptoms of mental health conditions might involve more
somatization than in other contexts.