Introduction/Objective: This study explored indigenous Vietnamese explanations for mental illness, focusing on three major aspects: i) courses and causes of mental ill-health; ii) experiences in service utilisation; and iii) attitudes towards diagnostic assessment and intervention services.

Methods: The study was a semi-structured interview survey using etic- (Western) and emic- (indigenous) derived measures. Participating in this survey were 158 voluntary adult Vietnamese living within metropolitan regions of the Southwest Sydney area of Australia, using the proportional stratified sampling technique.

Results: The Vietnamese-origin participants' concepts of mental illness and ways in which they presented the illness largely remained different from those of people of English-speaking culture; explanations for mental ill-health significantly reflected a strong eastern traditional framework of medicine, with cosmology and metaphysics being fundamental elements. Consistently, the majority confined themselves with Vietnamese-speaking general practitioners for assessment, care and treatment and a strong belief in metaphysics and cosmology-based services. There existed also a demonstrable knowledge deficit concerning the existence, roles and functions of current mainstream services.

Discussion: The identified non-Western way of explaining illness allows for a speculation that these clients might not be able identify their experiences with those described by the Western doctrine and instruments, nor expressed their experiences in a way that might be understood by Western-trained clinicians. For a more thorough understanding of the underlying difficulties in service utilisation experienced by these clients, studies, of a cohort design and larger sample, are needed.