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,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pastoral psychology
Main Author: Osafo, Joseph (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science Business Media B. V. 2016
In: Pastoral psychology
RelBib 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)
Description
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.
ISSN:1573-6679
Contains:Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11089-016-0703-7