Understanding Varying Mental Health Needs of People from Diverse Cultural Backgrounds

This chapter justifies the need to understand varying mental health needs of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is true and widely acknowledged that there are diverse languages and cultures across the world, with unique languages and cultures specific to particular countries. Immigrants bring their native languages, customs and cultures to the hosting countries, resulting in increased diversity of languages and cultures within the boundaries of these receiving countries. With the ever-changing ethnic and cultural composition of such communities, the mental health needs among their populations are changing and becoming increasingly diversified. In this context, researchers are being propelled by such diversities to make research findings more applicable to various sub-populations, and health professionals are being required to deliver culturally and linguistically responsive care in different settings.