Mental Health in Ecuador (Social #7)

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As a psychology major, I have been eager to observe how mental illness is treated, and how well this is working for Ecuador. From day one, I had been seeking out various mental health clinics, or therapist offices. However, I could not find much at all. So, I began asking my mama about the lens in which mental health is seen. This interaction took place with just the two of us, and was really a concerning conversation to me. There is a huge stigma in mental health here in Ecuador, and it is shown through the structure of treatment. In the late 1900s, the US shut down mental institutions, which were a leading cause of the stigma in America. Mental institutions are still active in Ecuador, where individuals can spend their entire lives in a hospital. My mama told me that her cousin spent 40 years in a mental institution because she needed treatment but her family did not want others knowing that she had schizophrenia, as it was seriously looked down upon. This made me so sad as individuals sometimes cannot help a diagnosis, and need support from others. My mama also explained to me that many will not see a psychologist, but rather, a psychiatrist, so that they can get medication to ease their symptoms. This is easier than coming to a psychologist office each week. This is a very individualist thing to do, and the Ecuadorian culture is not individualist. My mama told me that family support should be enough to handle one’s mental health. The family unit is so unified here, and lives are centralized around their family. Therefore, to decide to go to a psychologist each week to better oneself on one’s own is an uncommon choice. My mama was telling me that her cousin now is struggling greatly with depression, but will not go see a psychologist. She goes to a psychiatrist so that she can get medication, but then make sure she is home to take care of her father, who is visually impaired. Family comes first, which I understand, but sometimes, one needs to take care of oneself in order to better care for others! I think a new treatment approach for this culture should start by understanding the collectivist culture, and creating treatment programs to encourage this collectivism. It should not be to promote individualism, because that is not proving to be the best method thus far. “Leaders in CQ Knowledge have a rich, well-organized understanding of culture and how it affects the way people think and behave…they understand how culture shapes behavior” (Livermore, 65). I think it is important for incoming psychologists in the Ecuadorian culture to understand how their culture is different in regards to individualist decisions and the stigma that is involved with mental health. If this is first done, maybe there can be some great alternative therapy approaches established here that will encourage the collectivist culture and slowly get rid of the huge mental health stigma that exists.

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