Fahad Riaz Choudhry|Vasudevan Mani|Long Chiau Ming|Tahir Mehmood Khan
Beliefs and perception about mental health issues: a meta-synthesis
Universiti Teknologi MARA|Monash University Malaysia
background mental health literacy beliefs knowledge mental health issues remediesattitudes beliefs lay individuals mental illness shaped personal knowledge mental illness knowing interacting someone living mental illness cultural stereotypesmental health issues increasing alarming almost every part world hence compiling review provides opportunity understand different views regarding mental disorders problems well fill gap published literature focusing belief system perception mental health problems among general populationmethod methodology involved systematic review metasynthesis method includes synthesizing published qualitative studies mental health perception beliefssample fifteen relevant published qualitative mixedmethod studies regarding concept mental health identified metasynthesisanalysis themes selected studies analyzed give broader picture mental health problems perceived causes managementonly qualitative studies older 2010 focusing beliefs attitudes toward perceptions mental health problems causes treatments included review resultsthe findings divided four major categories namely 1 symptoms mental health issues 2 description mental health issues 3 perceived causes 4 preferred treatment helpseeking behavioreach category contains themes subthemes based published studies conclusionthe findings reveal multiple causes descriptions treatment options mental health problems thereby providing insight different helpseeking behaviorsclarity offered highlighting cultural differences similarities mental health beliefs perceptions causes mental health problemsthe implications studies recommendations based current findings also discussed