Abstract
The present study examined mental health perceptions in the Evangelical Russianspeaking community in Sacramento. It is estimated that those identifying as Christian make up approximately 30% of the Russian-Speaking community in Sacramento Region. The study aims to explore the beliefs, attitude and knowledge and help-seeking behaviors of mental health and related services in the target population. Forty-three participants who were 18 and over and identified as Evangelical Christian were recruited at a Slavic church and at church-sponsored events. Study findings indicated that females and the younger generation appear to have more positive views of mental health and related services. The participants who identified as having a friend with mental illness had more negative views on the topic than their counterparts. Since the overall participants’ perception scores were so close to neutral, it suggests that the population hesitates to state their opinion on the topic of mental health. The literature denotes that the topic of mental health is very taboo in the Russian-speaking community and therefore is not commonly discussed. A possible hypothesis to these responses may be that people really do not know enough to have a meaningful conversation about the topic. Seeking spiritual and social support emerged as the two most preferred routes of receiving help. Faith-related sources of support received higher scores compared to the other responses. The higher scores indicate that this specific group has a preference to receive mental health support from or through their church, which aligns with the literature’s assertion that this population prefers informal support for mental well being. The literature and findings of the current study suggest that a lot more work is needed to address the topic of mental health in the Evangelical Russian-speaking community in order to understand how to serve the populations need in a culturally sensitive approach.