Identifying the Causes Behind the Stigma about Indian Families for the Practice of Psychologists and Psychiatrists Stigma related to mental health as well as the lack of willingness among Indian families towards consulting psychologists and psychiatrists is the result of interlinked cultural, social, and historical factors:

Cultural and Social Factors: Mental illness is always a social humiliation, a disgrace, that is branded with a sign of awkwardness. Sometimes they attribute it to a consciousness that flows from a satanic boiling up or due to the rebound effect of one’s ill deeds.

-Family Shame: Currently, mental health treatment is considered a stigma by the family members.

-Cultural Taboos: Mostly, people find it culturally wrong to talk about their mental health hence the general trend is to keep quiet about it. Ignorance of mental health conditions and its treatment options are also among the misconceptions and fears that are responsible for this case.

Religious Beliefs: Some religions may cultural or traditional explanations of mental health as occasions of divine interferences or disturbances, which would see some individuals running to their pastors for cure instead of professionals.

Historical Factors:

Colonial Legacy: The extended colonial rule also brought in the western systems in the treatment of physical ailment but the mental illness was considered as imprisonment and enslavement.

Traditional Healing Practices: Allopathic treatment of mental health issues may be rejected in favor of traditional treatments, which are popular in India and many other countries. Practical Issues:

Accessibility: It is not enough mental health professionals, and where there is the scarcity of mental health professionals is in the rural areas where people cannot afford care.

Cost: The cost of therapy and medication is too high and so beyond the reach of most families for it to be implemented.

Language Barrier: The following paper aims to argue that incompetent communication between patients and mental health professionals is as a result of language.