A Study on the Concept of Mental Health and its Implication for Social Work Education in the Context of Chinese Communities UNE ÉTUDE SUR LA NOTION DE SANTÉ MENTALE ET SES IMPLICATIONS POUR L'ÉDUCATION DE TRAVAIL SOCIAL DANS LE CONTEXTE DES COMMUNAUTÉS CHINOISES

Abstract: The recently rapid growth of practice in cross-culture and multi-culture field leads practitioners to facing challenge of having to make choice amid different cultural values. Chinese culture has its own framework in understanding the concept of mental health, which is quite different from the Western's. On personal level, Chinese culture centers on the individual's inner cultivation. On self level, it concerns much about the individual's moral practice. On societal level, it focuses on the social harmony. And on spiritual level, it emphasizes on transcending the life limitations to reach oneness. Therefore, it is necessary for social work educators to help studnts to understand the basic cultural meanings underlying the concept of mental healh when applying it to the context of Chinese communities. Keywords: mental health; Chinese culture; progressive adaptation; limitation inclusion Resume: La croissance rapide de la pratique dans un contexte inter-culturel et multi-culturel conduit les praticiens a faire face au defi de faire un choix parmi de differentes valeurs culturelles. La culture chinoise a sa propre comprehension de la notion de sante mentale, ce qui est assez differente de celle de l'Occident . Au niveau personnel, la culture chinoise se concentre sur la cultivation interne de l'individu. Au niveau individuel, il s'agit bien de la pratique morale de l'individu. Au niveau communautairel, elle souligne l'harmonie sociale. Et au spirituel, elle met l'accent sur la transcendance des limites de vie pour atteindre l'unite. Par consequent, il est necessaire que les educateurs sociaux aident les etudiants a comprendre les significations culturelles de base propres au concept de sante mentale lors de l'appliquer dans le contexte des communautes chinoises. Mots-cles: sante mentale; culture chinoise; adaptation progressive; inclusion de prescription With the rapid growth of cross-culture and multi-culture counseling in Western countries (Chealtham, Ivey, Ivey, & Morgan, 1993, p.92-102), the 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of both indigenization movement (Katz, 1985; Kitano, & Maki, 1996; Myers, 1988; Yip, 2001a), which emphasized the consideration of Western intervention models with local culture, and authentization movement (Ho, 1998; Lee, & Greene, 1999; Nimmagadda, & Balgopal, 2001; Payne, 1997; Uehara et al., 1996; Walker, & Staton, 2000; Walton, & Abo EI Nasr, 1988; Yip, 2002), which focused on summarizing and formulating the local practice experience into intervention models to dialogue with the dominant Western ones. It is also true in social work. The influence of globalization caused the emergence of research on cross-culture social work (Felin, 2000; Gould, 1995; Lee, & Greene, 1999; Lu et al., 2001; McMaham, «fe Allen-Meares, 1992; Midgley, 2001; Nagy, «fe Falk, 2000; Nimmagadda, «fe Balgobal, 2001; Nimmagadda, «fe Cowger, 1999; Ow, 1999; Phinney, 1996; Takaki, 1993; Uehara et al., 1996; Walker, «fe Staton, 2000; Walton, «fe Abo EI Nasr, 1988; Yip, 2004b). This multi-culture practice context raises question about the appropriateness and applicability of the Western intervention models rooted in the Western culture, and pushes professional practitioners including social workers to face the challenge of making choice amid different cultural values. To better serve clients with different cultural tradition, it's necessary to trace back to and consider the basic question: how the mental health is culturally defined. THE CONCEPT OF MENTAL HEALTH The definition of concept of mental health is widely discussed across different disciplines in Western societies, but so far, there is no concensus on a singal one (Jahoda, 1985: 3). In terms of relationship between mental health and mental illness, the concept of mental health can be organized into three categories: unipolar, bipolar, and two dimensional perspectives (Herron et al., 1997: 164). …

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