Seeking Paths for Collaboration between Religious Leaders and Mental Health Professionals in Ghana
The treatment gap for mental illness is wide between low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization and other relevant bodies are seeking to reduce this gap through culturally innovative and sensitive programming. In Ghana, for example, only 2 % of the mentally ill access treatment,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2016
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| In: |
Pastoral psychology
Year: 2016, Volume: 65, Issue: 4, Pages: 493-508 |
| IxTheo Classification: | BS Traditional African religions CF Christianity and Science KBN Sub-Saharan Africa NCH Medical ethics ZD Psychology |
| Further subjects: | B
Collective Action
B Leaders B World Health Organization B Health Professionals B TREATMENT of mental illness B Mental Health Services B Mental health personnel B Religious leaders B Psychology B Collaboration B Religious B Ghana |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The treatment gap for mental illness is wide between low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization and other relevant bodies are seeking to reduce this gap through culturally innovative and sensitive programming. In Ghana, for example, only 2 % of the mentally ill access treatment, which means that 98 % do not receive care. Various discourses are ongoing to scale up mental health services in Ghana. One of these is the fostering of a collaborative framework between lay mental health workers (such as religious leaders or faith healers) and professional mental health workers. This article seeks to provide a framework within which collaborative linkages between religious leaders (e.g., the clergy, traditional healers) and professional mental health workers can be established. The article begins with a brief overview of Ghana's mental health landscape, followed by a description of the challenges that make collaboration a difficult task. Next, the need for a holistic view of health in Ghana is addressed by examining Engel's biopsychosocial model and Twumasi's work on the complementary role of traditional systems. The essay ends by providing a three-step approach-understanding, task shifting, and broadened curricula-as a model to guide any collaboration between religious leaders and health practitioners in Ghana. |
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| ISSN: | 1573-6679 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11089-016-0703-7 |