Mental Health and Attitudes towards Seeking Help among Caribbean Cultures

In addition, it sought to answer three distinct questions that include the perception of mental health among the Caribbean cultures and communities, how mental health is addressed and also how mental health is treated within the Caribbean cultures and communities. It entails a total of 100 participants that comprised of English speaking Caribbean people. They were required to answer a survey that asked various questions on mental health within their culture and in order to provide comprehensive results, the population comprised of people from various age groups such as teenagers, adults, and the elderly. The results that were realized indicated that the Caribbean cultures and communities do not hold mental health with the esteem that they ought to hold it with. It is not taken into much consideration, and as such, a majority of the people that suffer from mental illnesses from these populations mainly suffer because of lack of an awareness program or due to the lack of enough knowledge on the aspect.

They acted as the research questions within the study, and they included; • What does mental health look like in Caribbean cultures/communities?  • How is mental health addressed in Caribbean cultures/communities?  • How is mental health treated in Caribbean cultures/communities?  • Jarons/Sayings members of Caribbean cultures use to refer to mental health Methodology This chapter looks at the various methods that were applied in the research. It entails the participants, the measures and the procedure that will be used in this study. Participants of the study The number of people that participated in the study was 100. They entailed a number of diverse people from different age groups from the Caribbean communities and societies. The people were picked randomly from various communities, but all had one thing in common, and that was that they were all of the Caribbean backgrounds.

Giving their assent to participate in the study was a very important aspect of the study as it would be unethical to force them into filling the survey. After giving their consent on filling the survey, the participants were later on sent email links to the survey monkey site where they would fill the survey online. The results were then to be analyzed using tools provided on the site. In addition, with the aim of gaining faith and ensuring that there were no doubts, the participants were also given information about the principal investigators so that in the event that any of them needed any information with regards to the survey, they would easily access it. Preliminary Results and discussion The results of the research can be categorized based on the research questions that were provided in the introduction part of the study.

However, based on this research, the following results were received as the participants were asked about the various types of mental illnesses that they are aware of. Majority of the respondents argued that they only know of a few mental illnesses of which they learned when they were in school, or they got wind of when they are viewing the televisions. A few, around 30% claimed that they have never heard of any form of mental health or awareness campaigns on the subject. Therefore, mental health within the Caribbean societies is not addressed with the magnitude it should be addressed with as a large number of people there still do not understand what. • How is mental health treated in Caribbean cultures/communities?  The respondents were also asked to elaborate on how mental health is treated within their societies and based on the answers that were given; it is evidently clear that there is a problem within these communities.

It is mainly focused on the Caribbean community and society and their perception of mental illnesses. Based on the research, mental illnesses are not taken with the importance or significance that it ought to be taken with and as such, leading to the suffering and even death of people that can be prevented. As such, the main implication of this study is to raise awareness of the concept of mental health care among the minority groups within the country and even globally. References Caplan, G.  An approach to community mental health(Vol. Melton, G. B. , Petrila, J. , Poythress, N. G.  A sociology of mental health and illness. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). World Health Organization.  Social determinants of mental health. World Health Organization.