Up to 85 percent of the world’s population relies on traditional healers and medicines to meet their health care needs. In Uganda, for example, the ratio of traditional healers to population is 1:200, contrasting dramatically with biomedically trained health professionals, for which the ratio is 1:20,000. In the Andes of South America, there are no psychiatric or mental health services available to the Indigenous Peoples who therefore depend entirely on traditional healers, family and community support to cope with their mental health problems and to relieve their psychological distress.
Psychiatrists and Traditional Healers focuses on the significant contribution of traditional healers to the wellbeing of most of the world’s population, and considers the role of these unwitting partners in global mental health.
• This book presents original research data, clinical experiences, case vignettes, and pilot psychiatric collaborative programs between traditional healers and psychiatrists in countries around the world
• All chapters highlight, in various ways, the unanticipated and often unrecognized contributions of traditional healers and traditional psychiatric knowledge to global mental health
• Features a Foreword by Dr Goffredo Bartocci, President-elect of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry
Psychiatrists and Traditional Healers: Unwitting Partners in Global Mental Health makes fascinating reading for clinicians, researchers, community mental health practitioners, educators, and mental health policy makers, as well those interested in cultural psychiatry and the role of traditional healers in mental health.
