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

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
• psychotherapies

Disclosure

SR, FN, NH have received grants to conduct research in cultural adaptations of interventions. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.