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Allison Fisher

Professor Joyce Barnes

English 1201.505

17 November 2019

How Mental Illness Is Viewed Among Different Countries

If you or someone you know is diagnosed with a mental illness then it can

become self-evident that there is a great divide on how mental health is perceived

and dealt within your own culture, but have you ever been curious on how mental

health is perceived and treated within other countries and their cultures? Every

country has their own setbacks when it involves mental health. The majority of

these setbacks are due to stigma, harmful ideologies, and a lack of resources. If

people start to become aware of these issues then the treatments for mental health

can improve.

Before looking into how mental health is viewed and treated in other

countries, there needs to be an understanding of how mental illnesses are viewed

within our own country, the United States. The United States is made up many
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diverse communities and together they create a wide range of feelings and beliefs

in regards to the mentally ill. These different cultures can affect those who have

mental illness view it and describe it to their family, friends, and clinicians. An

example of this is in the book Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, written

by the Office of the Surgeon General (US), it states that Asian Patients are more

likely to report physical symptoms before expressing any emotional turmoil. It

varies from different cultures if a certain mental illness deserves sympathy and if

the mental illness is “real or imagined”. Every culture has its own stigma around

mental illnesses, how supportive family and friends are, and lastly how motivated

the mentally ill person is to seek treatment. In an e-book from the Sinclair

Community College library database: How Do We Address a Growing Problem?

recommends a few options to help resolve the ongoing issue with mental health in

the United States. Their first option was described as putting safety first. Examples

of how this might be done include mandatory health tests for those wanting

sensitive jobs (working with children is one of the examples listed) and or applying

for specific licenses, such as a gun license. The second option was expanding

services. More mental health services should be provided in rural and underserved

areas while also expanding our psychiatric hospitals to provide more impatient

care. The last option mentioned was letting people plot their own course. This

means more healthy-lifestyles programs such as meditation classes and gym

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memberships being provided to their employees and providing more support

groups.

In the Mental Illness, Stigma & Discrimination interview with. Prof. Dr.

Wulf Rössler, he classified stigma to be three- dimensional. One dimension is the

stereotype. He believes stereotypes are within everyone and at times they’re not

necessarily all negative, but that being said, stereotypes surrounding mental illness

are connected with prejudice. He explains that people are prejudiced if a stereotype

is connected with an emotional reaction. His example was a person being mentally

ill “must” be dangerous, therefore he shall be afraid of this person. He believes that

this prejudice some have can lead to discrimination against those with poor mental

health. Discrimination can be found in many countries and for many different

reasons. In Soviet countries it would because of any political belief that went

against the socialist ideology or if they couldn’t fit into the category of being the

perfect socialist. It was believed by The Russian Association of Psychiatry that

mental illness was identified with “capitalist societies” and it would disappear

under the communist regime (Petrea, Ionela). People who were faced with mental

illnesses and couldn’t fit with the socialist standards were viewed as not being fully

developed. This mentality towards the mentally ill had catastrophic effects. Many

of these individuals were removed from their communities and institutionalized

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and the family of these victims were urged to forget and abandon them in the

institutions. Within this soviet era there were also many reports of abuse of

psychiatry for political reasons. The World Psychiatric Association were led to

condemn the Soviet Union in 1977 due to the ever-growing evidence of people

being institutionalized and marked off as being mentally ill for their anti-socialist

beliefs. It is believed that one-third of all political prisoners in the Soviet Union

were locked up in psychiatric hospitals. But there are other disadvantages towards

the mentally ill than stigma and harmful ideologies. Another setback is the lack of

resources, specifically finances. Because of the lack of resources there is a

treatment gap in countries such as China and India.

The treatment gap within India can depends on a multitude of reasons, but the two

most influential reasons are due to resources and stigma. From EPW Engage, only

0.06% of India’s health budget is reserved for mental health. As a result of this

India lacks registered psychiatrists. Anupriya Patel, the Minister of State for Health

and Family Welfare, had announced that India has only 3,827 registered

psychiatrists, when in desperately needs at least 13,500. In a 2015 study that was

conducted by the World Health Organization, it shows 1 in 5 Indians may have

depression in some point in their lifetime. That is around 200 million people. That

being said only 10-12% of those people will seek treatment (World Economic
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Forum). In 2018, The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF) has commissioned a

national survey report to study how India perceives mental health. The study

showed that even though 87% of the respondents has expressed some sort of

awareness of mental illness, 71% of respondents has connected some terms with

stigma.

Fig. 1. (TLLLF) Padukone, Deepika, et al. How would the respondents describe a
person with mental illness. World Economic Forum, 20 Apr. 2018,
www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/5-charts-that-reveal-how-india-sees-
mental-health/. Accessed 17 November 2019.
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This stigma has the general population describe the mentally ill as retarded,

crazy/mad, and irresponsible. In chart three, attitudes towards the mentally ill

more in depth. 68% of respondents believe the mentally ill should not be

given any responsibilities, 60% of respondents believe that mentally ill people

need their own group, so people who have a health state of mind wouldn’t be

“contaminated” by them, and 44% of respondents of people who has mental

illness are always violent. These are only a few examples of the attitudes of

the respondents in the national survey report.

Fig. 2. (TLLLF) Padukone, Deepika, et al. Attitudes towards mental illness graph.
World Economic Forum, 20 Apr. 2018,
www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/5-charts-that-reveal-how-india-sees-
mental-health/. Accessed 17 November 2019.
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There is also a gap in treatment in China much like India. From a 2017 World

Health Organization report, 54 million Chinese people have depression.

Additionally, in 2012, The Lancet (a renowned medical journal) roughly 173

million people have diagnosable mental illnesses. Out of these 173 million only 15

million pursued treatment. From the China Higher Education Society, out of the 1

million certificates in psychological counseling in 2017, only 40,000 holders

provide the service either full or part-time. This means that there are over 90% of

the licensed counselors are not working in the field. As a result of the lack of

working licensed counselors, the 430,000 demand of counselors in upcoming years

will not be met (China Briefing). Hope shall not be lost, China is starting to

become aware to their mental health crisis. A second national work plan on mental

health is taking place between 2015-2019 was announced by the National Health

and Family Planning Commission of China (OMICS International). In this plan,

mental health services will be prominent in more locations that will make it more

assessable to the people, provide more psychiatrists, provide more management

and advocacy is in place for those diagnosed with severe mental illnesses, establish

more rehabilitation services, to list a few examples.

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To conclude, the many of the setbacks for the growth in mental health for

previous soviet countries, the United States, India, and China, are cause by harmful

ideologies and stigma and an overall lack of resources to help the mentally ill. The

result of harmful ideologies that can be seen in former soviet countries as the

mentally ill was removed from their communities and there was an on growing

form of abuse of power due to citizens being marked off as ill for having anti-

socialist beliefs. How stigma can be seen to have the general population view the

mentally ill as “retarded, irresponsible, and violent”, the pathway for better

treatment for the manly ill is starting. The people need to be put in contact with

those who has mental illness, more laws and work plans are being put in place

(OMICS International) and with each passing moment more and more people are

learning the world of mental health and with time we will be able to see

improvement, in many countries.

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Works Cited

Lin, I-Ting Shelly. “The Mental Healthcare Industry in China.” China Briefing

News, 14 June 2018, www.china-briefing.com/news/mental-healthcare-

industry-china/.

“Mental Health in India: A Problematic Discourse Can Only Lead to Inadequate

Laws.” Economic and Political Weekly, Engage EPW, 30 Aug. 2019,

www.epw.in/engage/article/mental-health-india-problematic-discourse-can-

only.

Office of the Surgeon General (US). “Chapter 2 Culture Counts: The Influence of

Culture and Society on Mental Health.” Mental Health: Culture, Race, and

Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General.,

U.S. National Library of Medicine, Aug. 2001,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44249/.

Padukone, Deepika, et al. “5 Charts That Reveal How India Sees Mental Health.”

World Economic Forum, 20 Apr. 2018,

www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/5-charts-that-reveal-how-india-sees-

mental-health/.
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Petrea, Ionela. “Mental Health Care.” Trends in Health Systems in the Former

Soviet Countries [Internet]., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1970,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458299/.

Rössler, Wulf. “Mental Illness, Stigma & Discrimination - Wulf Rössler.”

YouTube, YouTube, 10 Nov. 2011,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpDLcq3zAdY.

“Prof. Dr. Wulf Rössler: Collegium Helveticum – ETH Zürich.” Collegium

Helveticum, 24 May 2017, collegium.ethz.ch/en/about-us/staff/prof-dr-wulf-

roessler/.

Wharton, Tony, and Jeff Menzise. Mental Illness in America : How Do We

Address a Growing Problem? National Issues Forums Institute, 2014. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e900xww&AN=1232583&site=

eds-live.

Zhang, Fengyu, and Jingping Zhao. “China Is Prepared to Fight Against Emerging

Mental Health Disorders?” OMICS International, OMICS International,

www.omicsonline.org/open-access/china-is-prepared-to-fight-against-

emerging-mental-health-disorders-1522-4821-1000244.php?aid=59378.
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Zhu, Yifan, et al. “Attitudes towards Mental Illness among Medical Students in

China: Impact of Medical Education on Stigma.” Asia-Pacific Psychiatry, vol. 10,

no. 2, June 2018, p. 1. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/appy.12294.