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Barriers to accessing mental health services in The Gambia: patients’/family members’ perspectives

This paper concerns mental health services in The Gambia. It describes local concepts, experiences and knowledge about mental illness and the implications of such beliefs and attitudes for access to mental health services. A pretested questionnaire and interview guide were administered to a sample o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barrow, Lamin F. M., Faerden, Ann
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9046828/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35532422
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bji.2021.26
Descripción
Sumario:This paper concerns mental health services in The Gambia. It describes local concepts, experiences and knowledge about mental illness and the implications of such beliefs and attitudes for access to mental health services. A pretested questionnaire and interview guide were administered to a sample of patients/family members. Barriers to accessing mental health services were identified. These included beliefs about the causes of mental illness; family decision-making; the scarcity and high cost of services. Obtaining access to mental health services in The Gambia is currently challenging. Importantly, increased community and family education about the causes and treatment of mental illnesses will be required to address these issues.