Explanatory Models and Mental Health Treatment: Is Vodou an Obstacle to Psychiatric Treatment in Rural Haiti?
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry September 1, 2012 Nayla M. Khoury, Bonnie N. Kaiser, Hunter M. Keys et al. 100 citations
Mental illness in rural Haiti is often attributed to supernatural causes within Vodou, but this does not primarily prevent people from seeking biomedical psychiatric care. Interviews and focus groups with community leaders, healers, religious figures, and providers revealed that people hold multiple explanations for mental illness and are open to treatment from both traditional and biomedical practitioners. Folk healers often refer patients to hospitals and want to collaborate with biomedical providers. The main barriers to psychiatric care are not Vodou beliefs but structural factors: a scarcity of treatment resources and a lack of psychiatric training among health practitioners.