20100407 MANU AO (2010-06) - Dr Rees Tapsell

Seminar Topic: Do the western systems of diagnosis, classification and treatment of mental disorder adequately accommodate for culture: The Māori experience The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) are currently in the process of developing the most recent manuals for psychiatric diagnosis and classification (the ICD 11 and DSM 1V respectively). Psychiatric systems and clinical practice are becoming increasingly reductionist and more and more driven by these systems of diagnosis and classification at the expense of a number of key contextual variables, culture being one. Dr Tapsell and Dr Hinemoa Elder will use the experience of Māori, drawing on an extensive and ever growing empirical data base to argue that unless we ensure that cultural factors are considered in the processes of assessment, diagnosis (and classification), treatment planning and service development in a formal way such that they are always addressed, the gap between Māori and non‐Māori mental health status will never improve..