Exploring Mental Health Care and Barriers in Cuban Society: A Literature Review

Questions:

What Are The Gaps In The Literature?

How Does Your Research Address These Gaps?

Are You Duplicating Work? Which Framework Are You Using? Why? 

 What Is The Affiliation Of Social And Economic Elements To Mental Illnesses Amongst Populaces In Cuba?

 What Are The Major Barriers To Receiving Mental Health Care In Cuba?

The global community observed that mental health is fundamental to human evolution and has been critical in determining physical health conditions, wellbeing and socio-economic consequences. There have been increasing concerns regarding the growing prevalence of mental illness among individuals within the Caribbean regions, especially in Cuba (Brown & Bodden, 2017). Exploring various literature and data reveals that the Cuban health-care system faces the biggest challenge in the health arising from lack of access to technology and pharmaceuticals. The following paper will conduct a review of the literature focusing on the significant increase in mental illnesses in Cuban societies.

Regardless of the higher level of understanding of the increasing rate of mental illnesses, there has been a shortage of reliable evidence in facilitating the understanding of possible sources of these problems. Just as related nations, Caribbean territories tend to elucidate that ‘stigma’ has been linked to mental illness. APA has sent three groups of psychologists to Cuba to learn regarding the position that psychology holds in the country’s integrated health-care system.   As stated above the Cuban health-care system faces the biggest challenge due to lack of access to technology and pharmaceuticals. Low salaries of healthcare professionals are another major problem. Due to these several problems facing, Cubans are not able to receive adequate facilities in mental health care, which is the underlying problem that will be studied in this research.

This Research Aims At Exploring The Several Factors Impacting Mental Health Care In Cuban Society.

The Following Will be The Objectives of This Study

• Research Objective 1: To understand the state of the art of the mental health care system prevalent in Cuba
• Research Objective 2: To understand the challenges faced in the delivery of appropriate mental health care in Cuba
• Research Objective 3: To recommend strategies which will enable adapting appropriate mental health care in Cuba

There has been found a combination of cultural, social and political reasons to explain factors that led mental health conditions to be disregarded in the Caribbean territories, especially in Cuba. Civil stigmatization and ‘taboo’ remain to be the leading issues concerning Mental health issues in the Caribbean territories and to overcome is an essentiality of cultural change. The chosen research question is of great significance as Caribbean regions require improving their mental health policies and strategies to lessen the impact of social and economic factors on the increasing prevalence of mental illnesses (Tenório, Costa-Moura & Bianco, 2017). There has been a significant lack of resources and lesser treatment centers with the equipped workforce, which has led social stigma related to mental health issues remain as an obstacle to individuals who seek for healthcare services (Brown & Bodden, 2017). It is important to note that stigma against the mentally ill populaces have been observed to be highly pervasive and has been expressed by health care professionals and policymakers.

What Are The Gaps In The Literature?

The significance of this research will lie in determining the major barriers to mental health care in Cuba. The findings of this research will enable the government of the country to review the importance of the matter and bring changes in the barriers faced to provide appropriate mental health care facilities in Cuba. 

Social and economic factors are considered as vital determinants of health conditions. In the study of Lacey, Sears, Crawford, Matusko, and Jackson (2016), a multistage probability analysis has been organized on heads of families in Caribbean country Guyana whereby reduced odds of depressions amongst more educated participants have been found. Considering the average high poverty rates, it has been expected that several individuals living in Caribbean countries possibly will experience higher pressure of morbidity as well as early mortality. On the other hand, Mascayano, Tapia, Schilling, Alvarado & Tapia et al. (2016) by drawing insights from the previous study have hypothesized modified ‘labeling theory’ which elucidates the process by which stigmatization of mental illnesses tends to occur. Furthermore, the results of Brazilian studies related to stigma from clinical experts exhibited an unconstructive attitude towards individuals suffering from mental illness. It has been found that in comparison to healthcare professionals from Switzerland, Brazilian clinical professionals have been promoting less social distance and more positive attitudes (Tenório, Costa-Moura & Bianco, 2017). At this juncture, in Brazil, ideologies and social values regarding mental illnesses are prevalent and Christians being primary religion which tends to serve decisively to ameliorate mental disorders (Sancho & Larkin, 2020). Similar views have been shared by (Brown & Bodden, 2017) who have found that the disadvantaged socioeconomic groups tend to typically vulnerable to social issues.

Though there are several kinds of literature present in regarding mental health in the various Caribbean region, there is a lack of such literature from the Cuba region. Hence this study will aim at exploring such a gap in the literature to understand mental healthcare challenges prevalent in the Cuban region.   

References

Brown, C. M., & Bodden, A. J. (2017). An Examination Of Mental Health Treatment In The Caribbean: the Current State Of Treatment And Future Directions. The Caribbean in a Changing World: Surveying the Past, Mapping the Future, Volume 1, 1, 231.

Lacey, K. K., Sears, K. P., Crawford, T. V., Matusko, N., & Jackson, J. S. (2016). Relationship of social and economic factors to mental disorders among population-based samples of Jamaicans and Guyanese. BMJ open, 6(12), e012870. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016- 012870

Mascayano, F., Tapia, T., Schilling, S., Alvarado, R., Tapia, E., Lips, W., & Yang, L. H. (2016). Stigma toward mental illness in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 38(1), 73-85. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2015-1652

Sancho, T. N., & Larkin, M. (2020). “We need to slowly break down this barrier”: understanding the barriers and facilitators that Afro-Caribbean undergraduates perceive towards accessing mental health services in the UK. Journal of Public Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-12-2019-0099

Tenório, F., Costa-Moura, F., & Bianco, A. C. L. (2017). Psychiatry’s clinical tradition, psychoanalysis and current practices in mental health. Psicologia USP, 28(2), 206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0103-656420150125