DECODING SCHIZOPHRENIA ACROSS CULTURES

The way that the quantitative estimates of patients by country of origin (Africans, Central and Eastern Europeans, and Middle Eastern populations) were collected may have led to inaccuracies as it ultimately depended on the memory of the clinician at the time of the completion of the questionnaire. Also, the way that the questions were asked served as a drawback because it allowed for the provision of incorrect data reporting (respondents were asked to write down the numbers in a box and it allowed for incorrect reporting in terms of percentages for example). Therefore, this is not the most ideal means for data collection and the results need to be taken into account bearing these limitations in mind. However, due to the ethical controls when undertaking research at the National Health Service, other more valid methods were not advised as they may have resulted in the breach of patient confidentiality and this is why this method has been chosen as an alternative. Ideally, it would have been more accurate to have received patient demographics directly from the NHS patient cohort, but I was advised that it would not have been possible as I was not an NHS employee.

Another drawback to the estimates is the fact that the data ultimately depended on the memory of the respondents and may, as a result, not be fully accurate.

Interestingly, there were many responses into the category of North Africa which did not belong, there insofar as respondents included African Caribbeans and Jamaicans. Such additions were adjusted for, but it is important to note as it shows how clinicians generally categorize all Black ethnic minorities into the same group without realizing it.

This is exactly where the mental health system and research have failed to be neutral in terms of studies on BME groups, as Sewell (2009) has argued. Also, there seemed to have been a weak geographical understanding of the divisions between North, West and 226