Understanding Immigrants' Reluctance to Use Mental Health Services: A Qualitative Study From Montreal

The authors point out that studies suggest that non-European immigrants to Canada tend to under use mental health services, compared with Canadian-born people. They believe that social, cultural, religious, linguistic, geographic, and economic variables may contribute to this underuse. The authors explore the reasons for underuse of conventional mental health services in a community sample of fifteen West Indian immigrants in Montreal with identified emotional and somatic symptoms. Across participants' narratives, the authors identified three significant factors explaining their reluctance to use mental health services. First, there was a perceived over willingness of doctors to rely on pharmaceutical medications as interventions. Second, participants perceived a dismissive attitude and lack of time from physicians in previous encounters that deterred their use of current health service. Third, many participants reported a belief in the curative power of nonmedical interventions, most notably God and to a lesser extent, traditional folk medicine.

Canadian Journal of Psychiatry / La Revue canadienne de psychiatrie

Vol. 51

no. 4

205-209

March 2006

en