A bit of second hand information which might partly answer your question:
when my colleague, Cleo Boyd, was consulting with a collaborative group of
Canadian and Mexican social workers, it became clear to her that there was
no concept of "mental health" in Mexico as the Canadians understood it. The
reason seemed to be that for the Mexicans, mental health could not be
conceptualized as a separate entitiy from any other kind of health, except
as an abstraction.
David Burman
Toronto

At 09:30 AM 04/12/98 -0500, you wrote:
>In response to Neera Datta's request for the Canadian Health Network re:
>10 Frequently asked questions about health and culture, I have one
>related to mental health. In my work I have come across a lot of interest in
>two questions:
>
>1. How different cultures view what we called "mental illness".  (not only
>how they treat people with mental illnesses, but how they understand
>delusions, etc - i.e. as a spiritual thing, as a family problem, etc.)
>
>2. How different cultures traditionally support/work with/ help to heal
>people with "mental illnesses".
>
>This is different from the question of how our (local, provincial, etc.)
>mental health (i.e. mental illness) services can be more culturally
>appropriate. What I hear people looking for is new ways to understand
>and accept their own mental health problems or their family members'
>problems, and wondering if other cultural traditions had something to
>offer them.
>