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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
medicine
Collaboration Between Traditional Practitioners and Primary Health Care Staff in South Africa: DevelopinG a Workable Partnership for Community Mental Health Services
Transcultural Psychiatry, Volume 47, No. 4, Year 2010
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Description
The majority of the black African population in South Africa utilize both traditional and public sector Western systems of healing for mental health care. There is a need to develop models of collaboration that promote a workable relationship between the two healing systems. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of service users and providers of current interactions between the two systems of care and ways in which collaboration could be improved in the provision of community mental health services. Qualitative individual and focus group interviews were conducted with key health care providers and service users in one typical rural South African health sub-district. The majority of service users held traditional explanatory models of illness and used dual systems of care, with shifting between treatment modalities reportedly causing problems with treatment adherence. Traditional healers expressed a lack of appreciation from Western health care practitioners but were open to training in Western biomedical approaches and establishing a collaborative relationship in the interests of improving patient care. Western biomedically trained practitioners were less interested in such an arrangement. Interventions to acquaint traditional practitioners with Western approaches to the treatment of mental illness, orientation of Western practitioners towards a culture-centred approach to mental health care, as well as the establishment of fora to facilitate the negotiation of respectful collaborative relationships between the two systems of healing are required at district level to promote an equitable collaboration in the interests of improved patient care. © 2010, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Campbell-Hall, Victoria
Unknown Affiliation
Petersen, Inge
Unknown Affiliation
Bhana, Arvin
Unknown Affiliation
Mjadu, Sithembile
Unknown Affiliation
Hosegood, Victoria
Unknown Affiliation
Flisher, Alan J.
Unknown Affiliation
Statistics
Citations: 188
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1177/1363461510383459
ISSN:
13634615
Research Areas
Health System And Policy
Mental Health
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Qualitative
Study Locations
South Africa