Community Psychology and a Fresh Look at Faith Healing Camps

doi:10.1017/9781108678971.022

18 - Community Psychology and a Fresh Look at Faith Healing Camps

Experiences in Ghana

from Part III - Community Psychology in Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2021

Angela Ofori-Atta ,

Seth Asafo ,

Kwadwo Obeng and

Robert Rosenheck

Edited by

Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers

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Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers: Affiliation:
Long Island University, New York

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Summary

According to the World Health Organization (1995), the optimum mix of mental health services in a country should include, to a large extent, personal care and community services that are typically homegrown and culturally compatible with the ethos and beliefs of a people. In Ghana, available community services include a blend of traditional faith healing services as well as conventional Western orthodox psychiatric services. The practices of faith healers have not been extensively regulated and there have been many reported abuses. In this chapter, we describe the blend of services available in Ghana, a randomized control study of the augmentation of faith healing with medication, a qualitative study of beliefs regarding the causation of mental illness, and the impact on these beliefs of observing the randomized control trial. We conclude with some reflections on the ethics of doing research in a faith healing camp and on how faith healing camps may be reoriented and transformed into centers of recovery.

Keywords

Faith healing camps traditional faith healing global mental health Ghana

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Community Psychology
Interdisciplinary and Contextual Perspectives
, pp. 367 - 389

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108678971.022 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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