The Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health

Book excerpt: This edition is updated to include new research and clinical material for practitioners working with mental health patients of diverse backgrounds. Written by experts in cultural sensitivity, the text begins by establishing innovative approaches to understanding diversity, tools for diversity educational training for health care providers, clinical interviewing techniques and effective strategies in having difficult conversations. Indirect approaches to understanding diversity and mental health come from unique chapters that range from the ways that journalists process and discuss mental health competency to the business model for cultural competency in health care. The second section of the book moves from the broader subjects to the needs of specific populations, including Native Americans, Latinos, Asians, African American, Middle Eastern, Refugee and LGBQT communities. The discussion includes understanding the complexities of making mental health diagnoses and the various meanings these diagnoses have for the socio-cultural group described. Each chapter also details biopsychosocial treatment options and challenges. The Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health, Second Edition, is an excellent resource for all clinicians working with diverse populations, including psychiatrists, primary care physicians, emergency room physicians, early career physicians and trainees, psychologists, nurses, social workers, researchers, and medical educators.