Arabic Communities and Mental Health

Abstract

This assignment examines the article “Culturally Sensitive Social Work Practice with Arab Clients in Mental Health Settings”, along with the given case study and two further articles related to the topic. The idea is to make an outcome of the case study in the light of these articles. The articles describe the necessity of health seeking of mental health in life. They illustrate the need to aware different cultures and ethnicities about the importance and significance of mental health services. The articles present different surveys, which show the factors and barriers that the Arabic speaking community is facing, particularly in Sydney, Australia. The assignment points out different tactics that could be adopted to minimize the barriers so that the particular community can achieve benefit from the mental health service.

Arab Communities and Mental Health

Introduction

Mental health defines the psychological well being of an individual, or indicates that a mental disorder is missing or absent (Holmes, 2010). It is responsible for creating a balance between different aspects of life. Mental health has a direct relation with a person's physical health; therefore, poor mental health can affect physical health and can create many problems. It is very crucial to maintain good mental health in order to live a happy and healthy life. In order to remove mental disorders, it is essential to seek mental health service. The concept and knowledge of help-seeking for mental health is unfamiliar among many cultures around the world. The Arabic speaking community is one of them.

This assignment describes the culturally sensitive social work practice with Arab clients in Mental Health Settings in Sydney, Australia. The community is suffering greatly because various surveys have found the lack of usage of mental health service by the Arab community; therefore, it makes difficult for them to remove their mental disorders or any other mind related disease. There are various reasons and barriers for the under utilization of mental health service, and those reasons and barriers are primarily generated due to the difference of culture and religion. Moreover, there is a preference for other traditional health seeking opportunities rather than the specialized mental health service.

Culturally Sensitive Social Work Practice with Arab Clients in Mental Health Settings (Alean Al-Krenawi and John R. Graham)

Introduction to the article

This article describes the culturally sensitive social work practice with Arab clients in Mental Health settings. It is a fact that the utilization of mental health services by Arabic speaking communities living in Australia has been low. The article defines that there is different knowledge and skills required to respond to diverse ethnic community, such as, the Arabs, who require mental health and social services. The focus of the article is to provide insight mental health practice with families of different ethnic origins.

The article verifies the reasons for the underutilizing of the service through various interviews conducted from Arabic speaking background. The article further configures the various barriers that impact the underutilization that include; shame, precepts of marriage and divorce, lack of familiarity ...