An Exploration of Attitudes Toward Mental Health Among Community Members in Gujarat, India.

摘要

The MINDS Foundation, a non-profit organization, has partnered with the Department of Psychiatry at Dhiraj Hospital/Sumandeep Vidyapeeth University (SVU) in Vadodara, Gujarat to enhance access to mental health care in rural villages around Vadodara. The Global Health Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has joined this effort by studying views about mental illness/health among community members in these villages. Twenty-one interviews were conducted with the help of a SVU psychiatry resident who served as a translator. Responses were as follows: 17/21 believed psychiatric illness existed; 15/21 thought they were attributable to tension/stress due to financial struggles and family relationships; and 10/21 feared having a mental illness would cause other villagers to judge the patient and family, affecting relationships with and within the family. Further research is needed to explore the generalizability of these findings so that they can best inform future interventions by MINDS and Dhiraj Hospital.