An Examination Of Attitudes, Beliefs, And Understanding Of...

Annotated Bibliography The current proposed research aims to provide an examination of attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of mental illness and treatment seeking behaviours by British individuals of West African descent. Relevant literature specifically focussed at the British West African demographic is extremely scarce, with primary focus in this area being on African American individuals, hence the benefit of the proposed study, providing insight into beliefs and attitudes towards mental illness from the perspective of British West Africans. Ward, E. C., Wiltshire, J. C., Detry, M. A., Brown, R. L. (2013) ‘African American men and women’s attitudes towards mental illness perceptions of stigma, and preferred coping behaviours’.†¦show more content†¦With the issue that this particular demographic are closed to understanding psychological problems, the authors suggest the introduction of psycho-education and community awareness programmes on mental health and mental illness, to increase knowledge of psychological problems and subsequently reduce the associated stigma, thus leading to more openness to seeking treatment. This contemporary article is extremely useful to the current proposed research, as it focuses on similar areas of attitudes and beliefs towards mental illness. However, the primary limitation of the research does highlight the intrinsic issue with literature on this particular area being extremely ethnocentric. Matthews, A. K., Corrigan, P. W., Smith, B. M., Aranda, F. (2006) ‘A Qualitative Exploration of African-Americans’ Attitudes Toward Mental Illness and Mental Illness Treatment Seeking’. Rehabilitation Education 20(4), 253-268. The researchers in this article conducted a qualitative study focussing on attitudes toward mental illness and mental health service use in African Americans. Matthews et al. (2006) examined the cultural factors of mental illness stigma, attitudes and behaviours, and how these specifically shape the community norms. Using focus groups, the researchers examined how culture influenced perceptions in mental health service use, and found five thematic categories; descriptive terms and causes of mental illness, cultural norms