Abstract

MORA-RIOS, Jazmín  and  ITO-SUGIYAMA, Ma Emily. Emotional ailments, help-seeking behaviors and care expectancies in a marginal-urban community. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2005, vol.47, n.2, pp.145-154. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain information about emotional ailments based on the experience of adults in a socially underserved urban community, their social support resources to cope with them, and their health care expectancies. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study began in 2000, in the Magdalena Contreras District of Mexico City. Data collection was conducted in 2001-2003, using a multimethodological approach that included in depth interviews of female and male adults (n=16) performed during 2000-2002. A semistructured questionnaire (n=204) was applied in the first semester of 2002 and data entering was performed in the second semester of that year. Quantitative analysis was performed in 2003. RESULTS: The community informants evidenced a lack of social support networks. For women, the expected support to cope with emotional disorders should come from the nuclear family, although in practice their partner represented a source of discontent. For men, the main expected source of support was their wives. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these results, some reflections are proposed around intervention programs considering both the perspective of the community members and the multidisciplinary work.

Keywords : emotional ailments; mental health; community; help seeking processes; health care expectancies; Mexico.

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