Abstract
Background: Cultural context substantially affects the experience and clinical expression of psychiatric diseases, while cultural factors limit both access to and the effectiveness of care, especially for migrant families requiring the construction of specific types of services. We review the international literature on mental health services that take cultural elements into account and use these data to uncover the specificities of the French model of consultations by a group of transcultural psychotherapists.
Methods: Exhaustive review of the international literature through searches of PubMed and PsycINFO. The review includes 32 articles.
Results: The specificities of mental health services for migrant families are linked to the host country's migration patterns and citizenship model. In English-speaking countries, specialized services for ethnic minorities offer ethnic matching of the therapist and patient. In Canada, indirect transcultural consultation services have existed since the late 1990s. Australia emphasizes the networking of consultation services and professional training in cultural competence, while the Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark) focus management on trauma. In France, psychotherapy services, with flexible numbers of therapists involved according to the situation, have existed since 1990.
Discussion: Most initiatives place emphasis on training and supervision, in an indirect approach not specifically focused on the patient, or offer cultural matching of patient and therapist. The French transcultural approach, on the contrary, makes the family's culture and its cultural diversity an integral part of the therapy process. Scientific publications clearly demonstrate the clinical efficacy of this method.
Evaluating a Programme for Intercultural Competence in Psychotherapist Training: A Pilot Study
