Beliefs and practices in mental illness in a rural and urban sample of African people

Abstract

A survey type to explore the beliefs and practices of African people in mental illness was carried out. The aim of the study was to assess the beliefs and practices with a view to establish the need for integrating traditional African healing system with Western healing system. A sample of thirty 32 black participants were selected by means of a cluster sampling technique, in which fifty percent of the sample were from the rural area and the other fifty percent were from the urban area. Half of the sample was females, and the other half was ma!es. Respondents were drawn from Mafikeng and surrounding villages of the north-west Province. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Respondents were interviewed according to the standardised interview questions. Responses were content analysed into themes and descriptive techniques were used. Chi-square tests were used to determine the significant differences in relation to sociodemographic factors. The main finding of the study was that, the African Black population in general, has more positive beliefs towards both traditional and Western healing systems jointly. A majority of respondents favoured the merger between the two healing systems. There were no significant difference in beliefs and practices in relation to sociodemographic factors, of the sampled population. A large percentage of respondents showed a full confidence in the capabilities of traditional healers in treating different illnesses particularly mental illness. The need for the traditional healers to be recognised and to be made part of the official health care system in South Africa cannot therefore be over-emphasised, so that the universal goal of "health for all" could be realised.