Helen Dandurand (Host): Welcome back to the Well Within Reach podcast. I'm your host, Helen Danderand, And joining me today to talk about cultural perspectives on mental health is Crystal Davis, who is an advanced practice provider with Riverside Psychiatric Specialists. Health care can be confusing, but thanks to your My Riverside MyChart, you can easily manage not only your care, but your family's as well. With a single click, your My Riverside MyChart lets you stay well connected to the same information your provider sees. You can view your health history, get test results, request prescription refills, pay your bill, or make an appointment. Manage your care from anywhere, your laptop, phone, or tablet. Learn more and enroll today at riversidemychart.org.

And we're back with Crystal Davis. Thanks for being here today.

Guest: Thank you for having me.

Helen Dandurand (Host): Of course, of course.

I'm excited to talk about this.  But before we get started like diving into the topic, can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Guest: So my name is Crystal Davis. I'm a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at Riverside Psychiatric Specialty.

I have have served as a resource to the mental health community for 17 plus years and counting. I started off as a CNA, and a mental health technician. I worked my way forward due to my compassion to help others. My latest accomplishments in this area is becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Overall, I just want to help individuals cope with their mental health illness, with dignity and to promote a positive recovery for both the patient and the family.

Helen Dandurand (Host): Gotcha. That's awesome. It sounds like you have a lot of great experience and you should have a lot of great insight on our topic today.

So to start off with our first question, how do cultural perspectives influence the way individuals perceive and approach mental health in their communities?

Guest: I would like to start by stating everyone experiences truly different because of our diverse backgrounds. Individually, we all perceive and approach mental illness differently. With respect to that meaning, illness is whatever a person views it as.

They can view it as real or being imagined. It can also be viewed as of the body or the mind, or it can even be

both. Cultural meanings have a significant impact and consequences of whether people are motivated to seek help. if they don't seek help, it can lead to extreme distress, disability, maybe even suicide, when people with severe illness don't receive the appropriate treatment.

Helen Dandurand (Host): That makes sense. So could you share some examples of cultural beliefs or traditions

that impact the stigma that you mentioned surrounding mental health in certain societies?

Guest: I'm going to describe what stigma is for people who don't know what stigma is. So stigma is the negative attitudes and beliefs that motivate others to fear, avoid, discriminate against those with mental illness.

many patients typically avoid or hide their symptoms from their family and friends for as long as possible. Due to the fear of being judged some people, family members view it as a mark of shame a sign of weakness. That's But one example I would like to share is the aging culture may focus on the symptom first, which they might report dizziness versus the emotion.

And then actually acknowledging a symptom of what they're experiencing later. Some of these beliefs can cause want to be rejected or discriminated against in a number of different areas in society. They can be discriminated against by their family, cultures, different socioeconomic statuses, et cetera. The list goes on.

Helen Dandurand (Host):

That makes sense. So in what ways do cultural backgrounds

shape the expression and interpretation that you've seen of, of mental health symptoms?

Guest: things that I've seen is, I'm gonna go back to Asian groups they tend to avoid like upsetting thoughts in regards to personal matters versus expressing that they are in distress. African Americans may face problems rather than avoiding them.

Helen Dandurand (Host):Interesting. Are there specific cultural practices

or even rituals that play a role in mental health support or coping mechanisms?

Guest: I'm going to say cultures vary in terms of the treatment that they, receive or seek. it's shaped by their family background, religion, what's going on around us socially, and of course, our family traditions. African Americans more than whites tend to turn to spirituality and prayer versus when they're experiencing symptoms and coping.

they tend to handle things in their own way. Like Thailand, Buddhist, they encourage self control, emotional restraint, social inhibition. For example, their children don't talk back when spoken to, whereas other cultures, children tend to talk back, scream, or run away.

Helen Dandurand (Host): That makes sense, definitely. it's just so interesting to think about, like, you know, even just the way that you're raised and the way that you're allowed to express yourself, how it plays a role into, your mental health and things like that. How would you say you and also other mental health providers navigate the challenge of understanding and respecting diverse cultures, when working with clients?

Guest: I'm going to say self awareness is number one, so you're not biased or stereotyping. Number two is developing a cultural competence, which means becoming more aware of the cultures and backgrounds in the communities that you serve. Being knowledgeable about the different cultures in the world in the community itself.

performing a thorough health history about the patient as well as looking at their problems that they're presented with. Engaging with the clients from different backgrounds will also help. I would say also the biggest thing is understanding the language of the patient, which is also known as linguistic competence. Many patients have a limited English proficiency, which shapes the comprehension, their understanding, their decision making when it comes to the mental health treatment in general.

Helen Dandurand (Host): Awesome. that is so important. And like I mean, it's great knowing that providers care so much to really fully understand the patient in every way. We're going to take a quick break to talk about finding a primary care provider.

Riverside knows that health, especially your mental health, is your greatest asset, and that your primary care provider is your partner in health. If you're starting out on your mental health journey, a great first step would be talking to your primary care provider. If you don't have a primary care provider, Riverside can help.

Find a primary care provider that fits your needs at riversidehealthcare. org slash primary care. Okay, and we are back, with my next question here, are there cultural factors that contribute

to disparities in access to mental health resources and services that you've seen?

Guest: These factors very much influence how much support individuals may receive from their families and communities. So it's very important that resources are available as being ignored or untreated can lead to poor quality of health, poor quality of life, and also lead to secondary health issues. some contributing disparities include but not limited to socio economic factors, stigma, racism, poverty family dysfunction by restricting equal access to protective resources.Prevention, intervention, and education about mental illness are also a couple examples.

Helen Dandurand (Host): Great. you be able to discuss a little bit more, the role of family dynamics and community support, in different cultural contexts when it comes to mental health?

Guest: Of course, cultural beliefs of family forms the decisions that are being made about the individual being treated.

Overall, our cultures form our values about the various roles in a family, goals, how one is cared for, how we learn, the education received, the school readiness being from child age on up, how children behave. And overall. The nature of childhood itself, as far as the community support, it provides an identity and it helps shape our neighborhoods and the environment around us into an efficient, diverse

area. It also allows for everyone to be engaged and improve the overall mental health outcomes.

Helen Dandurand (Host):

Awesome. how has globalization and the blending of cultures kind of influenced perceptions and conversations around mental health on a more global scale? Awesome.

Guest: Globally, I would say we're looking at society as a patient.

Not all problems are located within the individual itself, and often the patient's well being or lack of is a product of the external environment. Globalization is not new, but over the last hundred years, there has been an increase in global networks, meaning the velocity of global flows have increased, and our interconnectedness as well has.increased as a whole. With that being said, our well being is or may be a collateral casualty of the things that are going on around us, such as economic social and cultural changes that are associated with

Helen Dandurand (Host): Yeah, makes sense. I feel like, sometimes when you're on TikTok and you're scrolling and you're seeing all these different cultures, all these different people, but you're blending so much.

I mean, there's something beautiful about it, but it's also like I was never meant to know this much. It can be so overwhelming to um, you know, interact with so many people. There's so many people in all these things, so I think all of that really kind of shapes that exposed to way more cultures, which is great, but it can be hard.

Are there cultural specific therapeutic approaches or interventions, that have proven effective in addressing mental health issues?

Guest: since I gave the example of being a language barrier earlier, I would like to use that as one of my examples. Basically, just having an educational material, available to both English and Spanish speaking patients. again, being cultural aware, not stereotyping when making a diagnosis. Some patients are diagnosed in certain cultures. For example,

diagnosed in African American children with ADHD without using the proper

Helen Dandurand (Host): screening tool. Got it. how would you say, like, that mental health professionals can promote cultural competency and inclusivity in their practice to better serve individuals from diverse backgrounds?

Guest: I'm going to say ensuring that they are providing culturally appropriate services is the number one thing. Developing a partnership to realign the power relationships between both providers and individuals. For example, hiring workers of diverse backgrounds, especially those of the community. partnering with, diverse cultural communities as well.And then allowing a patient or the client to be an active participant in their care being received.

Helen Dandurand (Host): That's great. Those are all great things and I hope that, we are moving toward being able to do that for everyone in our community so everyone feels that they are, have a safe place to go. but thank you for joining us today, Crystal. It's been great.

Guest: You're welcome. for having me.

Helen Dandurand (Host): Yeah, and thank you listeners for tuning in to the Well Within Reach podcast with Crystal Davis, advanced practice provider with Riverside Psychiatric Specialists, MD. and me, your host, Helen Danderand. To learn more about the services provided by Riverside's Behavioral Medicine Department, visit our website at riversidehealthcare.org or call our Central Intake Department at 844 442 2551.