Sociocultural considerations of mental health care and help-seeking in Uganda

Abstract

Sociocultural factors largely shape how communities conceptualize, express, and respond to mental and relational health problems. This paper reviews and summarizes literature on mental health in Uganda, with specific attention to Uganda's mental health policy, relevant sociocultural idioms of distress, and considerations. We include a discussion on stigma, as one key response to mental and relational health problems in Uganda. Further, we use clinical examples from Uganda to describe salient and common sociocultural idioms of distress that shape how Ugandans experience and express various mental health problems, and subsequent help-seeking behaviors. We end with a discussion by offering implications for sociocultural experiences and considerations to improve mental health service delivery in Uganda.

Keywords

• Mental health
• Socio-cultural considerations
• Stigma
• Uganda