Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part one At-risk groups
- 2 Primary prevention of childhood mental health problems
- 3 Primary prevention: assessing the relevance of life-events and difficulties among primary care attenders
- 4 The prevention of postnatal depression
- 5 Bereavement
- 6 Preventing mental illness amongst people of ethnic minorities
- 7 The prevention of mental illness in people with learning disability
- 8 The role of counselling in primary prevention
- Part two Early detection in primary care
- Part three Limiting disability and preventing relapse
- Index
6 - Preventing mental illness amongst people of ethnic minorities
from Part one - At-risk groups
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part one At-risk groups
- 2 Primary prevention of childhood mental health problems
- 3 Primary prevention: assessing the relevance of life-events and difficulties among primary care attenders
- 4 The prevention of postnatal depression
- 5 Bereavement
- 6 Preventing mental illness amongst people of ethnic minorities
- 7 The prevention of mental illness in people with learning disability
- 8 The role of counselling in primary prevention
- Part two Early detection in primary care
- Part three Limiting disability and preventing relapse
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Research on the ethnic minorities has concentrated upon those who do not describe their origins as white. Much of this chapter also concentrates upon these groups: in Britain, the majority originate from the African–Caribbean countries and South Asia. The uneven distribution of these groups can have marked effects upon the lists of general practitioners (Gillam et al., 1989). This chapter aims to outline the important factors which need to be taken into account by general practitioners considering mental illness in people of ethnic minorities.
Terminology
Description of people of different racial and ethnic origins is a complex area; as a source of discrimination, it is also a sensitive one which warrants a short explanation. In this chapter, I have used terms in common current usage in Britain: ‘black people’ as a broad category to describe all those people whose origins are not ‘white’ who, although different in many respects, share the exposure to racism: ‘African–Caribbean’ to describe those people who originate from Africa and the Caribbean of African descent, ‘Asian’ or more correctly ‘South Asian’ to describe those people who originate from the Indian subcontinent, and other self-explanatory terms, e.g. ‘Chinese’.
Race and ethnicity
There are differences between the terms ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’. The historical development of the word ‘race’ sheds light upon the complexities of its interpretation. ‘Race’ was a term coined in the sixteenth century to describe the lineage of people connected by common descent or origin.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Prevention of Mental Illness in Primary Care , pp. 88 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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