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Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study

Many elements of mental illness, including accessibility and utilization of mental health care, are influenced by societal cultural ideas. In Zambia, for example, traditional healers are not recognized, yet a large segment of the population continues to use their services due to their conviction. De...

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Autores principales: Sichimba, F., Janlöv, A.‐C., Khalaf, A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9736699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36496509
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25985-7
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author Sichimba, F.
Janlöv, A.‐C.
Khalaf, A.
author_facet Sichimba, F.
Janlöv, A.‐C.
Khalaf, A.
author_sort Sichimba, F.
collection PubMed
description Many elements of mental illness, including accessibility and utilization of mental health care, are influenced by societal cultural ideas. In Zambia, for example, traditional healers are not recognized, yet a large segment of the population continues to use their services due to their conviction. Despite this, studies on cultural beliefs and practices regarding mental illness in Zambia are scarce. Thus, this study is contextualized in Lusaka, Zambia, with the goal of filling a gap in the knowledge by exploring the cultural beliefs and practices surrounding mental illness as experienced by family caregivers caring for a next-of-kin with mental illness. Using a qualitative exploratory design, a purposeful sample of 15 family caregivers of next-of-kins diagnosed with mental illness were recruited. Data were collected via individual interviews, and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The analysis revealed four main themes: (1) prevailing beliefs on cause of mental illness; (2) encountering social support and neglect; (3) recognizing the need of professional help; and (4) seeking culturally influenced help. Findings show that traditional attributions (for example, being bewitched, demon possession and sexual relations with uncleansed widows) are deeply embedded in beliefs and descriptions of what causes mental illness. These beliefs were found to influence not only help-seeking practices but also how people perceived and related to families. Given that beliefs influence caregiver help-seeking, these findings have implications for culturally sensitive practice. The study recommends that public health practitioners consider cultural beliefs and practices when developing health promotion programs, and public health messages.
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spelling pubmed-97366992022-12-12 Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study Sichimba, F. Janlöv, A.‐C. Khalaf, A. Sci Rep Article Many elements of mental illness, including accessibility and utilization of mental health care, are influenced by societal cultural ideas. In Zambia, for example, traditional healers are not recognized, yet a large segment of the population continues to use their services due to their conviction. Despite this, studies on cultural beliefs and practices regarding mental illness in Zambia are scarce. Thus, this study is contextualized in Lusaka, Zambia, with the goal of filling a gap in the knowledge by exploring the cultural beliefs and practices surrounding mental illness as experienced by family caregivers caring for a next-of-kin with mental illness. Using a qualitative exploratory design, a purposeful sample of 15 family caregivers of next-of-kins diagnosed with mental illness were recruited. Data were collected via individual interviews, and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The analysis revealed four main themes: (1) prevailing beliefs on cause of mental illness; (2) encountering social support and neglect; (3) recognizing the need of professional help; and (4) seeking culturally influenced help. Findings show that traditional attributions (for example, being bewitched, demon possession and sexual relations with uncleansed widows) are deeply embedded in beliefs and descriptions of what causes mental illness. These beliefs were found to influence not only help-seeking practices but also how people perceived and related to families. Given that beliefs influence caregiver help-seeking, these findings have implications for culturally sensitive practice. The study recommends that public health practitioners consider cultural beliefs and practices when developing health promotion programs, and public health messages. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9736699/ /pubmed/36496509 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25985-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Sichimba, F.
Janlöv, A.‐C.
Khalaf, A.
Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
title Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
title_full Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
title_fullStr Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
title_short Family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in Zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
title_sort family caregivers’ perspectives of cultural beliefs and practices towards mental illness in zambia: an interview-based qualitative study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9736699/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36496509
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25985-7
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