The purpose of this study was to elicit how mental health care users from a mixed ancestry group, otherwise called “Coloureds” at a Mental Health Clinic in an urban South African context, understood mental illness. “Coloured” peoples perceptions about mental illness in not well documented as few studies have addressed the needs of this population group in South Africa. The purpose was addressed within a closed questionnaire schedule using the Illness Perception Questionnaire - Mental Health, which was administered over a two month period, from 3rd June 2011 to 29th July 2011, using a non experimental, prospective, descriptive research design survey method. Data were collected by means of a self administered questionnaire and analysed by means of descriptive statistics. According to the statistician no confidence level was necessary as the instrument used was already tested to be valid and reliable. Since the study was descriptive, no comparative statistics were necessary.The analysed data revealed evidence of poor identification of mental illnesses. This could be a contributory factor to the inadequate adherence to treatment strategies and high re-hospitalization rates in this community. There was also a lack of collaboration between health workers and mental health care users and inadequate imparting of mental illness information by the mental health care practitioners. The positive results that have become evident in this study of good community support, good personal control of illness, a belief in the importance of taking medication and low stress levels, may be utilized effectively to empower this community with knowledge about mental illness. This may allow this community to assume responsibility and be supportive in the efforts to destigmatise mental illness and to ensure that community mental health care services move efficiently and effectively.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Wright Institute (Berkeley), 1981. / Includes bibliographical references.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-45-Xx).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-353). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 188 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-177).

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis analyzes the degree of cultural relevance in the Asha Gram Mental Health Program in Barwani, India. The focus is on the role of community mental health workers as bridges between a professional culture of psychiatry and the local cultural understandings of mental health. Processes of cultural interaction are analyzed on a continuum from negotiation, defined as interaction without fundamental cultural change, to accommodation, defined as interaction with cultural change. Accommodation at the level of the vision of mental health disorders was limited while there was an active negotiation that resulted in some transformation of the social vision. Negotiation with communities at the level of relationships underpinned this transformation and contributed to a social accommodation with local forms of relationships. Although, professional and class power were important obstacles to achieving cultural relevance, the Program also demonstrates the necessity to subvert this power in order to create social change.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.H.S.)--Boise State University, 2009. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-63).