Page No 248-254
Pallavi Bhatnagar, Anupama Srivastava, Megha Singh, Priya Mishra,
Nudrat J. Sadaf and Nehashree Srivastava
University of Lucknow, Lucknow
In India people suffering from mental illness have been found to be simultaneously
seeking treatment from both medical practitioners and from traditional and faith
healers. The present study explores the perceptions of both medical practitioners
and faith healers about mental health issues. Data was collected from interviews
of 53 general medical practitioners and 56 faith healers. Content analysis of
responses revealed differences in the perceptions of medical practitioners and
faith healers regarding semantic of mental health, causes of mental illness
,treatment modality etc. The faith healers have a more broad based perception
of the semantic of mental health as compared to doctors. Poor coping and
faulty lifestyle were perceived as the major causes of mental illness by general
practitioners whereas the faith healers see the illness to be caused by religious
reasons like supernatural powers, changing positions of the planets, decrease
in religiosity etc. The medical practitioners were found to be mostly using
medicines to treat the mental health problems. The faith healers on the other
hand reported that they were predominantly using prayers as treatment modality
.