A Study on the Concept of Mental Health and its Implication for Social Work Education in the Context of Chinese Communities

The recently rapid growth of practice in cross-culture and multi-culture field leads practitioners to facing challenge of having to make choice amid different cultural values. Chinese culture has its own framework in understanding the concept of mental health, which is quite different from the Western’s. On personal level, Chinese culture centers on the individual’s inner cultivation. On self level, it concerns much about the individual’s moral practice. On societal level, it focuses on the social harmony. And on spiritual level, it emphasizes on transcending the life limitations to reach oneness. Therefore, it is necessary for social work educators to help studnts to understand the basic cultural meanings underlying the concept of mental healh when applying it to the context of Chinese communities.