Suchergebnisse

Background: Discrepancies in the experiences of different ethnic groups in mental health services exist, such as in the persistently higher rates of schizophrenia diagnosis found among the African-Caribbean population compared to the white European population in the UK. Some hypotheses consider whether this is due to greater stigmatizing attitudes to mental illness in the African-Caribbean community, leading individuals to avoid treatment-seeking and an increased incidence of schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate recognition and evaluation of schizophrenic symptoms across African-Caribbean and white European individuals. Method: One hundred and twenty eight adult students from London colleges completed a questionnaire assessing stigma beliefs, evaluation of symptoms as mental illness and help-seeking beliefs, in response to symptom vignettes. Results and Discussion: African-Caribbean participants indicated less stigmatizing beliefs towards both the symptoms and diagnostic label of schizophrenia compared to the white European participants. White European participants were more likely to label vignettes as implying `mental illness' and also more likely to recommend professional health treatment. These results are inconsistent with a hypothesis that on average African-Caribbean people stigmatize schizophrenia more than white European people. While white European participants' beliefs were more likely to follow a western model of mental illness, African-Caribbean participants were more likely to have alternative beliefs. The influence of racial discrimination, mental illness knowledge and societal structures are discussed.

AbstractBackgroundThis study argues for displays of affect by people with severe or profound intellectual disabilities to be analysed in the course of everyday interactions with the people who support them.MethodConversation analysis is applied to the affective displays of residents of a social care service for people with severe or profound intellectual disabilities to identify how such displays are taken up and form the basis for further action.ResultsThree types of orientations to affect are identified: where the cause of the affect is unknown; where there is a proximal cause; and where the proximal cause is a prior action by a member of staff. Staff orient to affect as expressions of both feelings and cognitions, thereby providing the basis for self‐determination.ConclusionsDisplays of affect are a communicative resource for those with severe or profound impairments and must be studied in situ if they are to inform policy and everyday practice.