TY - JOUR
T1 - Language, culture, and task shifting - an emerging challenge for global mental health
AU - Swartz, Leslie
AU - Kilian, Sanja
AU - Twesigye, Justus
AU - Attah, Dzifa
AU - Chiliza, Bonginkosi
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Language is at the heart of mental health care. Many high-income countries have sophisticated interpreter services, but in low- and middle-income countries there are not sufficient professional services, let alone interpreter services, and task shifting is used. In this article, we discuss this neglected issue in the context of low- and middle-income countries, where task shifting has been suggested as a solution to the problem of scarce mental health resources. The large diversity of languages in low- and middle-income countries, exacerbated by wide-scale migration, has implications for the scale-up of services. We suggest that it would be useful for those who are working innovatively to develop locally delivered mental health programmes in lowand middle-income countries to explore and report on issues of language and how these have been addressed. We need to know more about local challenges, but also about local solutions which seem to work, and for this we need more information from the field than is currently available.
AB - Language is at the heart of mental health care. Many high-income countries have sophisticated interpreter services, but in low- and middle-income countries there are not sufficient professional services, let alone interpreter services, and task shifting is used. In this article, we discuss this neglected issue in the context of low- and middle-income countries, where task shifting has been suggested as a solution to the problem of scarce mental health resources. The large diversity of languages in low- and middle-income countries, exacerbated by wide-scale migration, has implications for the scale-up of services. We suggest that it would be useful for those who are working innovatively to develop locally delivered mental health programmes in lowand middle-income countries to explore and report on issues of language and how these have been addressed. We need to know more about local challenges, but also about local solutions which seem to work, and for this we need more information from the field than is currently available.
KW - Interpreter services
KW - Language
KW - Low income
KW - Mental health
KW - Task shifting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904396592&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3402/gha.v7.23433
DO - 10.3402/gha.v7.23433
M3 - Article
C2 - 24581319
AN - SCOPUS:84904396592
SN - 1654-9880
VL - 7
JO - Global Health Action
JF - Global Health Action
IS - 1
M1 - 23433
ER -