A global mental health opportunity: How can cultural concepts of distress broaden the construct of immobility?

Journal: Global environmental change : human and policy dimensions

Volume: 77

Issue: 

Year of Publication: 

Affiliated Institutions:  United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany. Global Health Section and Copenhagen Centre for Disaster Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London (IRDR), University College London (UCL), London, UK.

Abstract summary 

(Im)mobility studies often focus on people on the move, neglecting those who stay, are immobile, or are trapped. The duality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis creates a global mental health challenge, impacting the most structurally oppressed, including immobile populations. The construct of immobility is investigated in the context of socio-political variables but lacks examination of the clinical psychological factors that impact immobility. Research is beginning to identify self-reported emotions that immobile populations experience through describing metaphors like . This article identifies links in the literature between Cultural Concepts of Distress drawn from transcultural psychiatry and immobility studies. is described in mental health research widely. Among (im)mobile people and non-mobility contexts, populations experience various mental health conditions from depression to the cultural syndrome, nervios. The connection of to CCD research lends itself to potential utility in immobility research. The conceptualisation can support broadening and deepening the comprehension of this global mental health challenge - how immobile populations' experience . To broaden the analytical framework of immobility and incorporate CCD, evidence is needed to fill the gaps on the psychological aspects of immobility research.

Authors & Co-authors:  Harasym Mary C MC Raju Emmanuel E Ayeb-Karlsson Sonja S

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations :  Abramowitz S.A. Trauma and humanitarian translation in Liberia: The tale of Open Mole. Cult. Med. Psychiatry. 2010;34(2):353–379.
Authors :  3
Identifiers
Doi : 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102594
SSN : 0959-3780
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Other Terms
Climate change;Cultural concepts of distress;Global mental health;Immobility;Migration;Trapped populations
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
England