WHO AM I? Transcultural Psychiatry in Practice

Abstract

Aims

Culture refers to the way of life of a group of people and influences their value system. It affects virtually every area of life, unconsciously shaping one's outlook, behaviours and responses. As the world becomes more multicultural, it is essential that mental health professionals possess the much-needed awareness into the constructs of cultural variation and their impact on the expression of psychopathology and treatment. Black, Asian and Minority groups are a diverse group and make up 16% of the population in England & Wales. They are reported to have a less positive experience of mental health systems compared to white people. The common barriers ethnic minority groups face in accessing mental health care include: cultural barriers, stigma, language barriers, lack of cultural sensitivity from professionals, stereotyping, unconscious bias and so on. The aim of this quality improvement project is to improve the delivery of patient care and professional support to ethnically diverse groups.

Methods

A pre-workshop survey was set up to aid planning. The virtual workshop had over 80 people in attendance and included panel discussions, anchored by four professionals and three patients, all with lived experience. It lasted for 1-hour 15minutes, followed by a debrief. Feedback was obtained through survey monkey and the results were analysed with Microsoft Excel.

Results

The pre-workshop planning survey identified that 91 % of respondents within the Trust (57 individuals) worry about being misunderstood when working with culturally diverse patients. 93 % feel more education on cultural diversity is needed and only 20 % felt they had sufficient knowledge and resources for day-to-day practice with a diverse patient group.The feedback survey results on the day explored five questions which included: awareness of barriers minority groups experience, awareness of available transcultural resources, awareness of transcultural issues, awareness of local protocols and resources, and likelihood to intervene against discrimination showed an improvement of 41.2%; with average pre-workshop scores of 55% and average post-workshop scores of 96.2%. Using thematic analysis, other areas of interest relating to transcultural psychiatry, at future workshops were considered as; greater awareness, practical approaches, culture/intersectionality, social justice, greater time allocation, spirituality, resources, gender/sexuality and age

Conclusion

Overall, majority of the feedback received was positive. Attendees valued the interactive nature of the panel discussions and choice of topics. Suggested areas of improvement were having more time for discussion and including other relevant topics. Recommendations include repeating workshops and raising local/national awareness.