The current status of culturally adapted mental health interventions: a practice-focused review of meta-analyses

Shanaya Rathod,1 Lina Gega,2 Amy Degnan,3 Jennifer Pikard,4 Tasneem Khan,5 Nusrat Husain,3 Tariq Munshi,4 Farooq Naeem4 1Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK; 2Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK; 3Division of Psychology and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 4Department of Psychiatry, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada; 5Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada Abstract: In recent years, there has been a steadily increasing recognition of the need to improve the cultural competence of services and cultural adaptation of interventions so that every individual can benefit from evidence-based care. There have been attempts at culturally adapting evidence-based interventions for mental health problems, and a few meta-analyses have been published in this area. This is, however, a much debated subject. Furthermore, there is a lack of a comprehensive review of meta-analyses and literature reviews that provide guidance to policy makers and clinicians. This review summarizes the current meta-analysis literature on culturally adapted interventions for mental health disorders to provide a succinct account of the current state of knowledge in this area, limitations, and guidance for the future research. Keywords: cultural adaptation, interventions, mental illness, meta-analysis, minority ethnic, psychotherapie