Centre develops African approach to mental health
"In order for a person, family or community to be healthy they must have balance between the physical, emotional, cognitive and emotional aspects of health."
MENTAL illness has wide-reaching effects on people’s education, employment, physical health, and relationships. Although many effective mental health interventions are available, people often do not seek out the care they need. With the Life Esidimeni arbitration currently underway, looking into the deaths of the mental-health patients at the centre, it has been the testimonies from officials that have left many outraged and highlighted the challenges facing the mentally-ill.
Prof Hassan O Kaya, Director of the DST-NRF Centre in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, says the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognized stigma as the main barrier to the effective treatment of the mentally ill. Mental healthcare experts, including traditional healers, believe that stigma is derived from prejudice and is the result of fear, apathy and ignorance.
READ RELATED: Health MEC says tragic death of mentally ill patients at Life Esidimeni was a wake up call
“The labeling, discrimination and exclusion of the mentally ill happens all over the world and has occurred throughout history. It is not only a problem among black people. For instance, in ancient Greece, the mentally ill were not allowed out in public and their families were fined if they didn’t control them. In the Middle Ages, many mentally ill people were branded as witches or for being possessed by demons, or were “treated” by barbaric methods such as starving and flogging. In South Africa in 1846, the prison colony on Robben Island was converted into a hospital for “lepers, lunatics and other chronically ill patients,” said Kaya.
In addition Kaya said: “While western healthcare system including mental healthcare believes that health care can be separated into specialized functions, the African indigenous worldview believes that health in general and mental health in particular, should be conceptualized the way it is culturally and ecologically understood by the specific community. There is a holistic approach to healthcare in IKS. In order for a person, family or community to be healthy they must have balance between the physical, emotional, cognitive and emotional aspects of health. All of these aspects of health are interconnected and thus any “treatment” must fully consider the whole person in relation to his/her environment/ community.”
The Centre’s focus areas include indigenous knowledge research, human capital development, knowledge brokerage, networking and community engagement are food security; traditional medicine; bio-diversity and environment management and curriculum studies with an emphasis on emerging quest for Non-Eurocentric paradigms. Its mission is to improve the quality of life of the people through recognition, development, protection and affirmation of IKS in Africa.
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