Perceptions around mental illness are culturally bounded and treatment of such diseases are linked to a variety of sociocultural beliefs. In a recent New York Times article by Samuel Kpavouvou, “The Chains of Mental Illness in West Africa” (2015) reveals the treatment methods for schizophrenic patients in church based mental health clinics in Western Africa. Focusing on the experiences of Koffi Gbedjeha, a past patient of the Jesus is the Solution prayer clinic, the economic disparities and cultural differences between western biomedical treatment and traditional blends of West African healing are apparent. The author utilizes the interpretive perspective in order to capture the meanings Gbedjeha and his relatives attributed to the spiraling
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Through the use of semi-structured interviews with fifteen schizophrenic patients the study took on an interpretive perspective. Which revealed that African patients displayed typical symptoms of schizophrenia; however, the source of symptoms was explained by alien control, obsessions by witches or jinns (S47). However, the explanatory models differed depending on age and when the on-set of schizophrenia occurred. From these results Napo et al suggest that an integration of traditional and ethnopharmacological approaches and modern medicine to treat patients in a culturally sensitive manner. Although the “The Chains of Mental Illness in West Africa” does little to discuss how the biomedical centers truly accept local knowledge the quote from Julian Eaton, the global mental health adviser for the CBM, suggests that progress is being made. Wherein he states that “West African families are as practical as anyone else, whatever their beliefs about mental illness”. This seems to suggest that a small degree of progress is being made and Western practitioners able to acknowledge that their patients want quality care, regardless of the explanatory model their patients
Through the use of semi-structured interviews with fifteen schizophrenic patients the study took on an interpretive perspective. Which revealed that African patients displayed typical symptoms of schizophrenia; however, the source of symptoms was explained by alien control, obsessions by witches or jinns (S47). However, the explanatory models differed depending on age and when the on-set of schizophrenia occurred. From these results Napo et al suggest that an integration of traditional and ethnopharmacological approaches and modern medicine to treat patients in a culturally sensitive manner. Although the “The Chains of Mental Illness in West Africa” does little to discuss how the biomedical centers truly accept local knowledge the quote from Julian Eaton, the global mental health adviser for the CBM, suggests that progress is being made. Wherein he states that “West African families are as practical as anyone else, whatever their beliefs about mental illness”. This seems to suggest that a small degree of progress is being made and Western practitioners able to acknowledge that their patients want quality care, regardless of the explanatory model their patients