Indian immigrants' constructions of mental health and mental illness in the perinatal period: A qualitative study

Bridgit Philip, Lynn Kemp, Christine Taylor, Virginia Schmied

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore how immigrant women and men from India construct mental health and mental illness in the perinatal period. Design: Qualitative interpretive design. Methods: Data were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with 19 participants. Photo elicitation, free listing and pile sorting were used during the interviews. Purposive sampling was used, and data were collected in 2018 and 2019. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Finding/Results: One major theme and three subthemes were identified. ‘We do not talk about it’ was the major theme and the subthemes: (1) ‘living peacefully and feeling happy’ described the views on mental health; (2) ‘that's the elephant in the room still’ captures how participants felt when talking about mental illness; and (3) ‘why don't we talk about it’ offers reasons why the Indian community does not talk about mental health and illness. Conclusion: The findings of this study have highlighted the importance of understanding the impact of immigration and being culturally sensitive when assessing mental health in the perinatal period. Impact: The findings of this study identify some of the reasons for non-disclosure of mental health issues by immigrants. Incorporating these findings during psychosocial assessment by health professionals in the perinatal period will help translate the cultural aspects into more effective communication. Patient or Public Contribution: Patient and public contribution to the study was provided by the Community Stakeholders Group; these were members of the immigrant community from India who had expertise in mental health. They contributed to the study design and the key terms and phrases for the free list used in interviews.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3797-3811
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Advanced Nursing
Volume80
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Open Access - Access Right Statement

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. © 2024 The Authors.

Keywords

  • qualitative approaches
  • mental health
  • pregnancy
  • post-partum
  • antepartum
  • anxiety
  • midwifery
  • women's health
  • Indian
  • depression
  • support
  • perinatal period
  • immigrants

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