Reactions to symptoms of mental disorder and help seeking in Sabah, Malaysia

Shoesmith, W.; Borhanuddin, A.; Yong Pau Lin, P.; Abdullah, A.; Nordin, N.; Giridharan, Beena; Forman, D.; Fyfe, S.

doi:10.1177/0020764017739643

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Authors

Shoesmith, W.

Borhanuddin, A.

Yong Pau Lin, P.

Abdullah, A.

Nordin, N.

Giridharan, Beena

Forman, D.

Fyfe, S.

Date

2018

Type

Journal Article

Metadata

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Citation

Shoesmith, W. and Borhanuddin, A. and Yong Pau Lin, P. and Abdullah, A. and Nordin, N. and Giridharan, B. and Forman, D. et al. 2018. Reactions to symptoms of mental disorder and help seeking in Sabah, Malaysia. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 64 (1): pp. 49-55.

Source Title

International Journal of Social Psychiatry

DOI

10.1177/0020764017739643

ISSN

0020-7640

School

Curtin Malaysia

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/65852

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. Background: A better understanding is needed about how people make decisions about help seeking. Materials: Focus group and individual interviews with patients, carers, healthcare staff, religious authorities, traditional healers and community members. Discussion: Four stages of help seeking were identified: (1) noticing symptoms and initial labelling, (2) collective decision-making, (3) spiritual diagnoses and treatment and (4) psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Conclusion: Spiritual diagnoses have the advantage of being less stigmatising, giving meaning to symp toms, and were seen to offer hope of cure rather than just symptom control. Patients and carers need help to integrate different explanatory models into a meaningful whole.