The Impact of Culture on the Mental Health of Ethnic Minority from Nigeria living in the United Kingdom - Dissertation Example

The British have had a very old relationship with Nigeria, which is the most populous country in Africa, and this country was a former British colony. It has been estimated that there are now about 800,000 to 3 million people of Nigerian descent who live in the UK. These Nigerian British have done well in the UK, but little is known about the problems that confront them and studies related to the mental health of this community are very rare. This dissertation presents a study that attempts to examine the impact of culture on the mental health of the Nigerian British.

Considerations related to culture are important when thinking about mental health because some aspects of culture influence syndromes and certain sets of symptoms are likely to be more common in some societies as compared to others (United States Department of Health and Human Services, Chapter 2). When people attend clinics, they also bring their culture with them and immigrants who migrate to live in a different country which has its own dominant culture have to undergo a process of acculturation in which they reconcile the cultural values of their own culture with that of their new country of residence.

Difficulties can arise for immigrants who were settled and established in their countries of origin when they resettle into another country and such difficulties can be even more acute if forced resettlement is an issue, such as for refugees, or if they find that the new environment is harsh and unwelcoming. The field of comparative psychiatry is all about studying cultural differences in psychopathology and the frequency as well as the manifestation of mental illness is linked with the psyche of nations.