Culture, mental health, and older people

This chapter provides an overview of culture and mental health as it pertains to older people from racialized and ethnic minority groups. It begins by sketching the groundwork for the literature on mental health among older racialized and ethnic minority older people. It outlines definitions of mental health and culture, how mental health may vary within and between cultures, and how different viewpoints impact understandings and approaches to mental health. It then situates the analysis in a critical life course perspective and sketches the details of two illustrative case vignettes. Together, the vignettes highlight how mental health is embedded in social relations and experienced in and across cultural and global contexts, and draw attention to four inter-related challenges, including: health disparities, im/migration, barriers to care, and family dynamics. Building on these, the chapter concludes with key issues for further development in research, policy, and practice.