Multicultural Perspectives in Social Work Practice with Families by Congress Elaine;Gonzalez Manny J.;

Author:Congress, Elaine;Gonzalez, Manny J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated
Published: 2012-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

Barriers to Accessing Mental Health Services

Existing services, which are geared toward the host country’s dominant ethnic and religious population, are not set up to deal with minority groups’ cultural influences, service delivery systems and policies, personal resources, patriarchal ideology, and cultural beliefs toward seeking outside help (Abu-Ras, 2003). Arab Americans face additional complications: the cultural stigma associated with Western mental health services (Gorkin & Othman, 1994) and most non-Muslim social workers’ lack of familiarity with the Arabic language and/or Islamic culture and values (Abu-Ras & Abu-Bader, 2008). More appropriate additional services may not be established due to a lack of resources, a fear of negative societal reactions, a personal or professional backlash, and/or discrimination (Abu-Ras & Abu-Bader, 2008). After 9/11, community members’ immigration status, political and social concerns, as well as fear of discrimination, detention, and deportation, increased their reluctance to access services. Instead, they largely turned to their religious leaders. A study (Abu-Ras et al., 2008) examining the role of imams in mental health settings for Muslims in New York City showed that the former played a major role in providing culturally competent mental health services after 9/11. Due to the limited services available to Arab Americans, however, many of them are at an even higher risk for mental health problems (Abu-Ras & Abu-Bader, 2008, 2009; Abu-Ras & Suárez, 2009; Abu-Ras et al., 2008).

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