http://www.pisang.org.uk/index.php?q=frontpage&page=1. Figure 2: Religious class in Kampung Utara Melbourne. â¢Gain comfort, strength and contentment.
Mental Health Help Seeking Behaviour Among Middle Aged Immigrant Malay Women in Victoria Asrenee Ab Razak1,2, Lenore Manderson1, Jill Astbury1 1Social
Science and Health Research Unit, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University 2Department of Psychiatry, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia
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Introduction
Findings
Malay people adopt a sociocultural conceptualization of mental health including the involvement of supernatural powers, and prefer alternative treatments such as those obtained from a spiritual healer or traditional healer.1,2,3 Swami, et al. (2009), explored health beliefs among Malaysian Muslims and found that they attributed the cause of mental ill health to fate and religious reasons.4 What happens then when Malays migrate?
Sources of mental health challenges
In Australia, since the 1980s, the Malay community has been on the increase, as a result of skilled and professional migration. Middle aged Malay women are integrated in the local culture and have high English proficiency. Yet they maintain their heritage by speaking Malay at home, practicing Islam and maintaining the Malay adat (custom/tradition) as part of their sense of identity.
•Gain comfort, strength and contentment.
In this study, the interaction between culture, society and environment is investigated to explore patterns of mental health help seeking behavior among middle aged immigrant Malay women living in Melbourne
Informal groups from the Muslim community
Conclusion
•Malay group (as in figure 3) •Other Muslim communities in Melbourne (Lebanese, Turkish, Somali) •A trusted person in the community who they believe had high Islamic knowledge •Being offered advice according to Islamic teachings •Help to strengthen their religious and spiritual beliefs •Improve their rituals and practices
For immigrant Malay women, mental health help seeking behaviour is located within sociocultural domains as reported in previous studies.4,7 Yet, they are also located in the religious and spiritual practices focussing on soul healing processes, in accordance to Islamic teaching.
Methodology Epistemology: Social Constructionism Ethnography methods Field work: 40 weeks duration Participate and observe In-depth Interviews Purposive sampling via snowballing.5 5 key informants 20 middle aged Malay women 2 set of interviews Sociodemography, community life and health Life narratives as migrants
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•Stressful life events eg: resettlement difficulties, death and illness and financial restraints and pressures. • Family circumstances: marital relationship, problems with their adolescent children and domestic violence
Help seeking behaviour Located through Religious and Spiritual Pathways
Self focused help •Attend religious classes to enhance their Islamic knowledge (figure 2). •Improve their Quranic recitation, •Perform prayers and religious ritual such as zikr (reciting certain Quranic versus repeatedly)
Readily available professional mental health services •This is a last resort option. •Those who experienced formal services felt that the services lacked the religious-spiritual input that corresponded to their beliefs and could fulfils their needs
Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.6
Figure 2: Religious class in Kampung Utara Melbourne.
While the religious beliefs and practices can be seen as a protective for emotional well being, they can also contain a detrimental element when the religious understanding and doctrine is used in a defensive way to resolve mental health problems. This would restricts women seeking help from formal professional services. Nevertheless, improved understanding of the religious and spiritual influences on the mental health help seeking behaviour among the population of Malay Muslim migrant in Australia, would help to identify and reduce the barriers to help seeking behaviour among minority.
References
Ethics approval was obtained from MUHREC.
1.Abdul Kadir, N. B., & Bifulco, A. (2010). Malaysian Moslem Mothers' Experience of Depression and Service Use. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 1-25. 2.Haque, A. (2005). Mental Health Concepts and Program Development in Malaysia. Journal of Mental Health, 14(2), 183195. 3.Razali, S. M., Khan, U. A., & Hasanah, C. I. (1996). Belief in supernatural causes of mental illness among Malay patients: Impact on treatment. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 94(4), 229233. 4.Swami, V., Arteche, A., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Maakip, I., Stanistreet, D., & Furnham, A. (2009). Lay perceptions of current and future health, the causes of illness, and the nature of recovery: Explaining health and illness in Malaysia. British Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 519-540. 5.Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design. Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.
Figure 3:Islamic Medical Treatment course in Melbourne Figure 1: Malay settlement in Victoria
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6.Braun, V. ,& Clarke, V. (2006). Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.Qualitative Research in Psychology,3:77-101 7.Laderman, C. (1991).Taming the Wind of Desire.Berkeley, University of California Press
