In many African countries, mental health issues, including the burden of serious mental illness and trauma, have not been adequately addressed. These essays shed light on the treatment of common and chronic mental disorders, including mental illness and treatment in the current climate of economic and political instability, access to health care, access to medicines, and the impact of HIV-AIDS and other chronic illness on mental health. While problems are rampant and carry real and devastating consequences, this volume promotes an understanding of the African mental health landscape in service of reform.
Table of Content
Introduction: Culture, Mental Illness and Psychiatric Practice in Africa
Emmanuel Akyeampong, Allan Hill and Arthur Kleinman
1. Historical Overview of Psychiatry in Africa
Emmanuel Akyeampong
2. Common Mental Disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Triad of Depression, Anxiety, and Somatization
Vikram Patel and Dan Stein
3. Schizophrenia and Psychosis in West Africa
Ursula M. Read, Victor Doku, and Ama de-Graft Aikins
4. Mental Illness and Destitution in Ghana: A Social Psychological Perspective
Ama de-Graft Aikins
5. Children and Adolescent Mental Health in South Africa
Alan Flisher, Andrew Dawes, Zuhayr Kafaar, Crick Lund, Katherine Sorsdahl, Bronwyn Myers, Rita Thom, and Soraya Seedat
6. Some Aspects of Mental Illness in French-Speaking West Africa
René Collignon
7. Local Interpretations of Global Constructs: Women’s Reports on Mental Illness in Africa
Allan G. Hill and Victoria Demenil
8. One Thing Leads to Another: Sex, AIDS, and Mental Health Reform in South Africa
Pamela Y. Collins
9. Health Care Professional Mental Health and Well-Being in the Era of HIV/AIDS: Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Africa
Giuseppe Raviola
10. The Role of The Traditional Healers in Mental Health in Africa
Elialilia Okello and Seggane Musisi
11. Improving Access to Psychiatric Medicines in Africa
Shoba Raja, Sarah Kippen and Michael Reich
12. Child Solders and Community Reconciliation in Post-War Sierra Leone: African Psychiatry in the 21st Century
William Murphy
13. Using Mixed Methods to Plan and Evaluate Mental Health Programs for War-Affected Children in Sub-Saharan Africa
Theresa Betancourt
Contributors
Index
About the author
Emmanuel Akyeampong is Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.Allan Hill is Andelot Professor of Demography at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Arthur Kleinman is the Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, and Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
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