Mental Health Stigma and Cases in Mexican Culture

Provide thoughtful and relevant replies to 2 other students. The guideline for a reply post is about 200-350 words. These posts should be relevant, timely, well-written and include citations.
Discussion posts are evaluated and graded based on timeliness, relevance, references, depth/quality, and quantity of discussion posts for all modules. Posting the obvious, or comments such as "I agree with you" or "That was an interesting idea" are not given value toward your discussion grade.
A's Post:
My interviewee was a 71-year-old women from the Dominican Republic. She shared that mental illness is a problem that is sometimes misunderstood, condemned, and/or seen as something spiritual, so often it is stigmatized because of lack of awareness and/or education surrounding it. Therefore, mental health issues in the Dominican Republic are addressed in accordance with their healthcare and cultural mentality toward the issue. According to the article, “Stigma about mental illness among multidisciplinary health care providers in the Dominican Republic”, people with mental health issues were stigmatized because they were “perceived as out of control and unable to conform to societal norms resulting in fear and a lack of empathy among care providers” (Caplan, et al., 2016, p. 192). Also, as mentioned in the article, in DR, “63% of patients with severe mental illness do not receive necessary care, and due to limited resources, the received care is often of poor quality” (Caplan, et al., 2016, p. 193). The lack of resources is due to societal and economic conditions in DR. Looking back at its history, the first mental institution was established in 1881 in which treatment consisted of herbal medications provided by nuns, until 1939 when the first trained psychiatrist arrived from Spain. In the 1970’s, the first community mental health center was built, and around 2001-2008 the Decennial Health Plan was established (Caplan, et al., 2016, p. 193). However, economic and structural barriers to health care access continued to be amplified because of societal stigma towards mental illness. In this study, 37 health care workers were sampled. The sample consists of mental health providers and non-mental health providers. The procedure consists of focus groups and semi structured interviews. Findings shows that individuals with mental illness are seen as “loco” (crazy), whereas other forms of mental illness such as depression and anxiety, are not considered illnesses (Caplan et al., 2016, p. 201).
In conclusion, even though progress has been made regarding the treatment of mental health in DR, there is still work to be done such as increasing access to appropriate health care and providing education to eliminate stigmas. The scholarly source supports what I learned from my interviewee in regard to how mental health is perceived in the Dominican Republic.
References
Caplan, S., Little, T. V., & Garces-King, J. (2016). Stigma about mental illness among multidisciplinary health care providers in the Dominican Republic. International Perspectives in Psychology, 5(3), 192-206. 
M's Post:
I had the pleasure of interviewing "Garcia" (identifying information is not included in order to provide confidentiality), a Mexican Woman who immigrated to The United States at 17 years of age on a bus. She grew up in a rural area and stopped attending school in the fourth grade. She described school as being a luxury, most children dropped out in order to work and help support the family. This value of collectivism was seen throughout the interview and colors the perception and treatment of mental health in Mexican culture. When asking about the stigma around mental health she stated that as long as the person was genuine in their seeking of help, that the family and community would stand with them and support them. If the seeking of help was only for attention and was deemed as fake then the community would see them as taking advantage and not be as supportive. This was evidence of collectivism in action, when the seeking of help or acting out was seen as disrupting the family or community then they viewed this as "bad" or "immoral". When describing the access to healthcare She stated this, "in my personal opinion, Mexicans tend to not have enough access to the healthcare they need when it comes to that kind of thing. A lot of it gets swept under the rug and it is sad because when people really need it there is no one around to actually go to for help unlike here in the states." (Garcia Interview 2023) The lack of professionals to turn to for service could be due to a lack of people reaching out, supply and demand. If as a culture people are more likely to turn to family and community for support and help then there isn't a demand for these professional services. In an article published in 2007, the statistics of mental health treatment in Mexico were studied. What they found is exactly what Garcia expressed during her interview. They described a 30 year period from first experiencing an anxiety disorder to the time when first treatment was sought. Why is there such a delay in seeking mental health treatment in Mexico? Garcia mentioned that it is a lack of access to someone to turn to, the article found that "this tremendous unmet need for treatment is explained at least in part by structural realities such as a severe shortage of qualified mental health personnel capable of delivering effective care." (Borges 2007) It seems a cycle that perpetuates itself, the people turn to their in-group/family for support, thus there is no supply of people seeking help to create the demand for mental health professionals.
Borges, G., Wang, P., Medina-Mora, M., Lara, C., Chiu, W. (2007). Delay of First Treatment of Mental and Substance Use Disorders in Mexico. American Journal of Public Health. 
Garcia Interview. (October 2023) Megan Morris