One of the Asian patient came to the hospital during my internship program with severe wounds on the body. She attempted suicide but successfully managed to survive. Her mother was not accepting that she committed suicide, she was continuously avoiding questions related to her health and wanted doctors to give her first aid. Doctors considered the patient’s mental health issues and recommended her to consult one of the psychiatrists but her mothers refused and even dragged her injured daughter from the hospital bed and said, My daughter is not mad, I won’t ever take her to any psychiatrist ?What will people say? No one will marry my daughter.
Cultural stigma ;
Cultural stigma is real. All the assumptions that one’s behaviors and attitude is affected by the culture of that society where that person is living.
Life matters or people’s assumptions matter?
Asians life is hard, they have to live with people’s choice. Life is not everything but people’s opinions and perspectives matter for them. Consider a girl that is suffering through harsh mental health and needs immediate treatment and assurance, but can’t receive hospital care because of what others will think about her? And how to deal with them?
Culture and mental health;
Mental health is still not the priority in many conservative areas. From getting counseling sessions to psychiatrist visits is still a taboo. People find one person severely I’ll and mad that affects the overall family.