The Conceptualisation of Mental Illness and its Treatments: Views of Clients, Caregivers and Service Providers in Addis Ababa
| dc.contributor.advisor | Emirie (PhD), Guday | |
| dc.contributor.author | WIYohannes, Ermyas | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-03-31T12:04:34Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-04T11:55:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-03-31T12:04:34Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-04T11:55:25Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-10 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The mental health has long been neglected in Ethiopia, most sufferers resort solely to indigenous religious healing therapies, and there is an extreme lack of awareness of mental related issues. In order to improve the provision of mental health care we need to understand better how mental health is perceived and how the indigenous religious and the biomedical therapies interact with each other. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to explore the conceptualisation of mental illness and its treatments from the perspective of clients, caregivers and service providers, in specific sites in Addis Ababa from an ethno-medical perspective. Use was made of an ethnographic approach, i.e. a sub-branch of the qualitative approach, employing primary and secondary data collection methods. The former including informal conversation, in-depth interviews, and participant observation the latter was based on critical review of related literature and documents. All data were organized thematically and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. There was a period of intense field research including total immersion in the life context of two specific carer communities, one providing professional psychiatric care and the other a holy water therapy centre. This faCilitated gaining in depth insights concerning indigenous concepts and their relation to biomedical care. The motivating idea of the study is that in depth knowledge of the life experience of care communities is the key to improving them. The study found that the conceptualisation of mental illness varied according to the individual 's context. The mentally ill were initially cared for by family members, followed mainly by religious therapy and perhaps subsequently by biomedical treatment. Hospital treatment is based on a biopsychosocial model, stressing on supplying medicine to patients, although the continuation of religious therapy was not prohibited even after admission to the hospital. Factorsfacilitating the involvement of patients in their own care were found to induce agency and the absence of such factors constrained agency. Thus, based on the research, one can conclude that religious therapy is inherently agency oriented and the most accessed form of therapy for mental illness. Consequently, there is a need to integrate biomedicine with religious therapy in order to provide mental health services that is culturally appropriate and patient-centred. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/31052 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa University | en_US |
| dc.subject | Views of Clients, Caregivers and Service Providers in Addis Ababa | en_US |
| dc.title | The Conceptualisation of Mental Illness and its Treatments: Views of Clients, Caregivers and Service Providers in Addis Ababa | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |