Connection Welsh

Could Welsh culture be affecting our mental wellness?

Psychiatrist Dr Olwen Lisa Payne thinks so, and will attempt to answer the question in a new S4C documentary this month. The programme, entitled Meddwl yn Wahanol – thinking differently – will air on Sunday 5th March on S4C.

Olwen first developed an interest in this link during a period of medical training in Nepal. “It was remarkable how mental health presents differently in different countries,” she says. “Common conditions there were very uncommon here, with shared beliefs and differences in education both having an effect on how they understood themselves. For example, spiritual healers were used to treat epilepsy, while arranged marriages often caused depression. A lack of understanding about germs, meanwhile, meant a lady presented to the mental health team with psychosis and delusions of bugs in her body ‒she’d been told by a doctor she had an infection but didn’t quite understand what an infection was.

“It’s interesting how the Western idea of mental health has influenced the understanding of mental health in Nepal, but actually they didn’t quite marry up and weren’t as sympathetic to its culture. I’d love to explore that further but, to start with, let’s try and understand ourselves.”

We may be worlds apart but we have our own unique culture that influences our lives here in Wales. “Although on face value we may think we’re just like everybody else, actually we’re all different; the villages that we live in will share certain belief systems separate to another village down the road,” she continues. “It’s a very subtle difference but they do exist.”

Olwen, who specialises in CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services), believes stigma can have a very real effect on our mental health. For those already facing stigma around their sexuality or gender, this sense of shame may be compounded by the culture they were born into. The ability to communicate in our native language is key to the development of trust and rapport between doctor and patient, she believes.

“The majority of psychiatrists don’t speak Welsh here and that may mean some, particularly older generations within rural Wales, may then find it more frightening to be honest about how they’re actually feeling,” she adds.

As speakers of a historically oppressed language, it’s possible we lack the cultural self-assurance of those whose language has never been under threat. An 1847 government commissioned report – referred to by the Welsh as the Treachery of the Blue Books – presented Welsh speakers as stupid, unruly and sexually promiscuous.

As a result, school children caught speaking Welsh were forced to wear a heavy wooden plaque – reading W.N, or Welsh Not – around their necks. The child found wearing the plaque at the end of the day would be physically punished.

Though today Wales is officially recognised as a bilingual country, and Welsh a legally protected language, we still see regular displays of disrespect and even outright contempt from the London-centric British media. On UNESCO’s World Mother Tongue Day, language expert Alex Rawlings was left ‘speechless’ when a Sky News presenter asked whether Welsh was the most ‘pointless’ language.

When even the national media deems it acceptable to ridicule an indigenous language, what hope is there for the millions who consume that media? We saw it in the backlash when park authorities announced it would refer to Eryri’s tallest peak exclusively by its native name Yr Wyddfa, while we’ve all heard the one about the whole pub switching to Welsh as soon as a tourist walked in.

What might this denial of the way with which we communicate with the world have on us as a collective?

When Welsh place names are replaced in guide books in favour of more palatable translations devoid of any history – an example being Llyn Bochlwyd replaced with Lake Australia – what effect might this cultural erasure have on the native population?

Despite the Welsh government’s push to secure one million Welsh speakers by 2050, the results of the 2021 Census proved disappointing, with the percentage of speakers dropping to just 17.8% ‒ a 1.2% decrease from the previous decade.

“Cymry Cymraeg, as we say, tend to have more attachment towards their heritage and culture because of a general threat of it dissipating, and therefore having to defend it at all times,” explains Olwen. “When I went to university in Leeds people would often be so shocked that Welsh is even spoken. They’d ask, isn’t that a dying language? It would hit me like a stab to the heart.”

It stands to reason that such widespread invalidation of one’s culture might affect the collective confidence of its people.

THE ROAD

According to Olwen, having the option to speak Welsh in a clinical setting is crucial to forging a connection between patient and practitioner. “The fact that I speak their first language translates into the work we do ‒ the trust they have in the medication I might be offering or the therapy that’s being provided. There’s a real sense of connection there just from speaking those words. But it’s not just words, is it? It’s about the culture and shared belief system attached to those words.”

One thing which surprised Olwen was how difficult it would be to persuade people to speak on camera. “What is it about our culture that makes us feel ashamed about being exposed? Is it the topic, or us as people? Is it the tendency to be more reserved in our culture, the ‘North Walian reserve’ as it’s coined here?”

Many of us dream of far-flung cultures but there’s still plenty to discover right here on our doorstep. Olwen stresses she may not yet have all the answers, but we very much look forward to joining her on this journey. n

Watch Drych: Meddwl yn Wahanol on S4C on Sunday 5th March at 9pm, or with English subtitles on BBC iPlayer. To keep up to date with Olwen’s work follow her on Instagram @dr.olwen

Lowri Llewelyn is a North Wales based journalist who is endlessly curious [read: nosy] and loves everything to do with this beautiful region that she is lucky enough to call home refined elegance of our KODO design language woven into the toughness of an SUV Carefully curated materials like real maple wood, high-quality leather, Japanese textiles and chrome details are combined in perfect harmony in a car completely designed around its driver If this is how we craft the details,

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