Mental illness is one of the stigmas, which physicians conceal and present frequently as somatic complaints including the stomach pain, headache and anxiety or stress. Thus, mental healthcare providers need to be trained about the distinctive stresses that may be caused by mental issues. They will work with the multicultural world in which medical personnel will learn ways of handling and caring for mental illness caused by inter cultural conflicts. During the acculturation process, both the immigrants and the host cultures may be affected mentally. Culture plays vital roles in illness presentation. Moreover, cultural differences may affect the diagnosis and treatment given to the immigrants. This is due to linguistic problems, social variations and cultural beliefs towards healthcare provisions. For instance, the first generations of the Indian immigrants have traditional medical beliefs and have their own traditional medicines, which they believe works better that the modern medicine provided in hospitals or pharmaceuticals.
The Indians and the Bangladeshis immigrants living in the U. S. may have varied mental illness or health related issues. This is because of acculturation and the intergeneration conflicts. The immigrant Indians men have high rate of coronary heart diseases, diabetes and high cholesterol levels. All these diseases have insulin resistance, which is common pathogenic mechanism for risk factors of the diseases. According to the world report on health issues, the Asian immigrant women were recorder as having the higher number of population in the America with the highest incidences for cancer. The Asian women including the Bengalis and Indians are at high risk of getting osteoporosis. This was associated with stress, which was also connected to the acculturation and intercultural conflicts. Thus, health care provider should offer education programs on the way to manage stress. This is crucial because it will help the immigrant to work towards managing stress factors that may lead to mental illness.
Another illness that the Bangladeshis and Indians immigrants experience is the constant headache and ulcers. These diseases are caused due to acculturation gaps, abandoning of family and friends, financial hardships and trauma experiences. Trin (2009), points out that mental illness are mostly recorded among the immigrants in the U. S. This is because many of them experience stress from families, other cultures and the challenges of coping in a new environment. Too much stress is the cause for stomach ulcers and severe headache. Therefore, the immigrants in the U. S have developed mentally-related illness associated with stress. Hence, there is the need for medical practitioners to incorporate design and care provision programs. However, health care provisions or health service delivery in the contemporary society is more individualized (Rho & Rho, 2009).
