Pathways to mental health care in Nigeria
Author:
- O A AbiodunOAO A Abiodun
- 1 August 1995
- journal article
- Published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing in Psychiatric Services
- Vol. 46 (8) , 823-826
Abstract
A total of 238 patients who attended a mental health service in Ilorin, Nigeria, over a one-month period were interviewed to assess the routes they took to psychiatric care. Ninety-five patients reported that they had first contacted traditional or religious healers when they became mentally ill. Patients who contacted such healers included significantly more males and Muslims and fewer patients with professional occupations. Family members played important roles in patients' decisions about the type of practitioner to consult. The author suggests that use of psychiatric care in developing countries could be improved by training primary health care workers to give mental health education to the communities they serve.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Psychosocial family intervention in schizophrenia: a review of empirical studiesPsychological Medicine, 1991
- Clinical and socio‐cultural parameters in Nigerian psychiatric patientsActa Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1985