The effect of cultural dislocation on the perception of mental health treatment in Ghanaian

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This ethnographic study aims to explore the issue of cultural dislocation in how Ghanaiancommunities in North London perceive what constitutes effective mental health treatment.Cultural dislocation is defined as 'the removal of a person from a location organized by aparticular set of cultural practices and placing them in another location organized by asubstantially different set of cultural practices' (Dajani, 2018, 1). By undertaking a multisitedethnography in North London and Ghana, I will analyse the effects of this physical andemotional dislocation from a shared cultural system upon what Ghanaian people expect fromtheir mental health care, and ideas of continuity and change in beliefs from home to hostcontexts. I will interview psychiatrists and patients in both the UK and Ghana and compareand contrast ideas around mental health in both spaces.The Ghanaian diaspora in the UK has doubled in size in the twenty first century to over113,000 people and a recent study found that over half suffered from psychosocial stress(Awuah et al. 2018). The active promotion of a hostile environment policy alongside stressesrelated to being an ethnic minority in post-Brexit Britain has fostered a state ofprecariousness and situationally-induced stress factors for migrants which has heightenedthe risk of mental health issues occurring and made the challenges encountered withtreatment even more complex. This treatment is also affected by a lack of cultural awarenessand evidence of institutionalised racism within UK healthcare, in which black people are fourtimes more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act compared to the rest of thepopulation (Singh et al. 2014).This research will explore: a) mental health policy and social provision in the UK; b) howmigration affects attitudes towards mental health and self-perception; and c) conceptions ofmental illness in home and host context institutions. Building on the 'illness narratives'approach developed by medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman and used subsequently byKrause in her study of Ghanaians in London, I will explore the UK context of social andhealthcare provision through individual experiences of mental health in the diaspora.Narrative ethnography is a means of engaging with interlocutors in more depth by exploringtheir experiences through modes of storytelling. By detailing specific cases, this study willdraw on themes evident within home and host communities of medical pluralism andcontextualise these experiences within the wider issues evident in UK mental healthprovision for migrants.