Urban Mental Health (Oxford Cultural Psychiatry series)

The internal migration in countries around the globe as a result of rapid urbanization and related to industrialization as a consequence of globalization has been truly remarkable. The past 50 years have seen a massive rise in the numbers of people moving and creating megapolis in many parts of the world. It is inevitable that with such massive internal migration come stressors such as pollution, lack of space, overcrowding, unemployment, and increased likelihood of infectious diseases, all of which contribute to an increase in psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, such migration can also lead to the splintering of social support and the fraying of social networks, which can further contribute to poor help-seeking and poor therapeutic adherence and poor prognosis. This book highlights challenges in managing mental health and psychiatric disorders in urban areas. The contributors include researchers, clinicians, urban planners, urban designers, and others who are interested in the field. The book will appeal to all mental health professionals, whether they are working in urban areas or rural areas.

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (No. 10) ◽  
pp. 471-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Peker

Migration from rural has been an important problem in Turkey for the last four decades. This issue has been investigated with regard to its different aspects since the late 1970’s. Research studies focused on its impacts on urban areas. Although the studies on migration in urban areas are more extensive, unfortunately, the studies of migration in rural Turkey are very poor and the effects of this phenomenon on the farms have been untouched. Migration from rural areas starting in the 1950’s was supported, since it was regarded as the locomotive for the rapid urbanization, industrial improvement and development until the late 1970’s. The conventional wisdom in the 1970’s concluded that the best way to eliminate lower incomes was helping farmers to move to urban jobs but nowadays there is widespread agreement that incentive for migration to urban areas does not solve the problem of rural or urban poverty in Turkey. For that reason, Turkish Government spends millions of dollars annually on agricultural policies, and additional funds on rural development to hold people in the rural. In this study, causes and result of migration from the rural was investigated with regard to the mobility of the resources and the success of the farms in a city of Eastern Turkey, Erzurum. The results of the study showed that some causes of migration such as economical, social, and cultural from rural in Turkey are different than the causes in other countries. As a result, it can be concluded that migration from rural areas has not reached the point at which migration has a negative effect on the success of agribusiness.


Psichologija ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Austėja Agnietė Čepulienė ◽  
Said Dadašev ◽  
Dovilė Grigienė ◽  
Miglė Marcinkevičiūtė ◽  
Greta Uržaitė ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic can influence the situation of suicide rates and mental health in rural regions even more than in major cities. The aim of the current study was to explore the functioning of mental health service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic through interviews with mental health professionals and other specialists who work with suicide prevention in rural areas. Thirty specialists were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. The following codes were identified during the thematic analysis: providing help during the pandemic (mental health professionals and institutions adapted to the conditions of the pandemic, remote counselling makes providing help more difficult, the help is less reachable); help-seeking during the pandemic (people seek less help because of the pandemic, seeking remote help is easier, the frequency of help seeking didn’t change); the effects and governing of the pandemic situation (the pandemic can have negative effects on mental health; after the pandemic mental health might get worse; the governing of the pandemic situation in Lithuania could be more fluent). The current study reveals positive aspects of mental health professionals’ adaptivity during the pandemic, as well as severe problems which are related to the access to the mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.


In the past five decades or so there has been a massive increase in the populations living in urban areas across the globe. Apart from natural disasters, which push individuals to urban areas, industrialization as a result of globalization also contributes to movement of people, causing internal migration. Such movements bring with them specific problems of settling down, overcrowding, and demands on urban resources, which often cannot keep up with needs. Insecure employment or unemployment with frayed personal and social contacts can further contribute to stress and psychiatric disorders. Medical resources are often concentrated in urban areas. Increasingly, more attention is being paid to well-being in urban areas by changing urban design and creating more urban spaces. Changes in social network systems and support and care create further difficluties in caring for those who develop psychiatric disorders. This chapter sets the scene for the book and highlights major issues.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto F. L. Amaral

Internal migration has been decisive in the process of rapid urbanization that has occurred throughout Brazil in recent decades. The usual explanation for this movement references poverty and the lack of job opportunities in the northeast combined with the concentration of industries in the southeast, mainly in the state of São Paulo. A process of spatial deconcentration has occurred since the 1970s. Internal migration is no longer predominantly a rural-to-urban phenomenon. Demographic growth has decreased in the Brazilian regions, due to diminishing fertility rates and changes in migration patterns. The new migration patterns are characterized by a relative decline in the number of people on the move. The decrease in population flows seems to indicate the disruption of networks between some locations. Current migrants tend to be more qualified than in the past; this characteristic contributes to decentralized development.


Psych ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 792-799
Author(s):  
Vaios Peritogiannis ◽  
Fotini Tsoli

The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model of care has been long considered to be effective in the management of patients with severe mental illness (SMI) in most Western countries. The implementation of the original ACT model may be particularly challenging in rural and remote communities with small and dispersed populations and lack of adequate mental health services. Rural programs may have to adapt the model and modify the ACT fidelity standards to accommodate these limitations, and this is the rationale for the introduction of more flexible, hybrid ACT models. In rural Greece, the so called Mobile Mental Health Units (MMHUs) are well-established community mental health services. For patients with SMI that have difficulties engaging with treatment services, the new hybrid ACT model has been recently launched. The objective of this manuscript is to present the recently launched hybrid ACT model in rural areas in Greece and to explore the challenges and limitations in its implementation from the experience of a team of mental health professionals with ACT experience. Referral criteria have not been strictly set, but the number of previous relapses and hospitalizations is taken under consideration, as well as the history of poor treatment adherence and disengagement from mental health services. The main limitation in the implementation of the hybrid ACT service is that it has been introduced in several areas in the absence of a pre-existing community mental health service. This may impact referrals and limit focus on the difficult cases of patients with SMI, thus making the evaluation of the model inapplicable.


2004 ◽  
Vol 184 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Noorbala ◽  
S. A. Bagheri Yazdi ◽  
M. T. Yasamy ◽  
K. Mohammad

BackgroundNo national data on the prevalence of mental disorders are available in Iran. Such information may be a prerequisite for efficient national mental health intervention.AimsTo determine the mental health status of a population sample aged 15 years and over.MethodThrough random cluster sampling, 35 014 individuals were selected and evaluated using the 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire. A complementary semi-structured clinical interview was also undertaken to detect learning disability (‘mental retardation’), epilepsy and psychosis.ResultsAbout a fifth of the people in the study (25.9% of the women and 14.9% of the men) were detected as likely cases. The prevalence of mental disorders was 21.33% in rural areas and 20.9% in urban areas. Depression and anxiety symptoms were more prevalent than somatisation and social dysfunction. The interview of families by general practitioners revealed that the rates of learning disability epilepsy and psychosis were 1.4%, 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively Prevalence increased with age and was higher in the married, widowed, divorced, unemployed and retired people.ConclusionsPrevalence rates are comparable with international studies. There is a wide regional difference in the country, and women are at greater risk.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Picco ◽  
E. Abdin ◽  
S. Pang ◽  
J. A. Vaingankar ◽  
A. Jeyagurunathan ◽  
...  

Aims.The ability to recognise a mental illness has important implications as it can aid in timely and appropriate help-seeking, and ultimately improve outcomes for people with mental illness. This study aims to explore the association between recognition and help-seeking preferences and stigmatising attitudes, for alcohol abuse, dementia, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia, using a vignette-based approach.Methods.This was a population-based, cross-sectional survey conducted among Singapore Residents (n = 3006) aged 18–65 years. All respondents were asked what they think is wrong with the person in the vignette and who they should seek help from. Respondents were also administered the Personal and Perceived sub scales of the Depression Stigma Scale and the Social Distance Scale. Weighted frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables. A series of multiple logistic and linear regression models were performed separately by vignette to generate odd ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the relationship between help-seeking preference, and recognition and beta coefficients and 95% confidence intervals for the relationship between stigma and recognition.Results.Correct recognition was associated with less preference to seek help from family and friends for depression and schizophrenia. Recognition was also associated with increased odds of endorsing seeking help from a psychiatric hospital for dementia, depression and schizophrenia, while there was also an increased preference to seek help from a psychologist and psychiatrist for depression. Recognition was associated with less personal and perceived stigma for OCD and less personal stigma for schizophrenia, however, increased odds of social distancing for dementia.Conclusion.The ability to correctly recognise a mental illness was associated with less preference to seek help from informal sources, whilst increased preference to seek help from mental health professionals and services and less personal and perceived stigma. These findings re-emphasise the need to improve mental health literacy and reinforce the potential benefits recognition can have to individuals and the wider community in Singapore.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402110392
Author(s):  
Daniel Cavanagh ◽  
Tomas Jurcik ◽  
Morteza Charkhabi

Background: Depression is a major contributor to the global burden of disease that affects more than 300 million people worldwide. Cross cultural studies find that culture influences levels of trust which can impact upon an individual’s likelihood to seek psychological help when experiencing Depression. Aims: Help seeking is essential for improved mental health outcomes. This study aims to consider how trust affects help-seeking as well as examine the differences in stigma and social distance between participants in Russia and Australia. Method: Participants consisted of two separate samples from Australian ( n = 229) and Russia ( n = 259) which were recruited based on a vignette of a diagnostically unlabelled psychiatric case history with Depression using a cross-cultural research design. They completed items on the level of trust in health professionals, stigma and endorsement of help-seeking. Results: Findings suggest that trust can predict the endorsement of seeking help from a psychologist. Moreover, trust was lower for participants in Russia compared to those in Australia for mental health professionals. Participants in Russia had higher levels of stigma and social distance than their counterparts in Australia. Overall, participants in Australia were more likely to seek professional help than those in Russia. Conclusions: Trust can predict the endorsement of help-seeking from mental health professionals cross culturally. Barriers to help-seeking such as stigma continue to negatively affect mental health outcomes, particularly in Russia.


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