Faculty of Medicine, Nnamdi Azikiwe University , Awka , Nigeria.
Department of Mental Health, University of Benin , Benin City , Nigeria.
Front Public Health. 2014 Apr 22;2:33. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00033. eCollection 2014.
Although mental ill health constitutes a huge portion of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), the majority of people with mental health problems do not receive any treatment, a scenario much worse in developing countries where mental health personnel are in gross short supply. The mhGAP was launched to address this gap, especially by training non-mental health professionals to deliver effective services for selected priority mental health problems. Especially in developing countries, many people with mental health problems consult traditional healers either as a first step in the pathway to biomedical mental health care or as the sole mental health service providers. Bridging the gap between mental health needs and available services in developing countries needs to incorporate traditional healers, who are ubiquitously available, easily accessible, and acceptable to the natives. Even though there are barriers in forging collaborations between traditional and biomedical mental health care providers, with mutual respect, understanding, and adapted training using the mhGAP intervention guide, it should be possible to get some traditional healers to understand the core principles of some priority mental health problems identification, treatment, and referral.
尽管精神健康问题在全球疾病负担中占很大比例，但大多数有心理健康问题的人并未接受任何治疗，这种情况在精神卫生人员严重短缺的发展中国家更为严重。 mhGAP 的推出就是为了解决这一差距，特别是通过培训非精神卫生专业人员为选定的重点精神卫生问题提供有效的服务。特别是在发展中国家，许多有精神健康问题的人要么首先咨询传统治疗师，然后再寻求生物医学精神卫生保健，要么将传统治疗师作为唯一的精神卫生服务提供者。要弥合发展中国家精神健康需求与现有服务之间的差距，就需要将传统治疗师纳入其中，因为他们无处不在、易于接触并且为当地人所接受。尽管在传统和生物医学精神卫生保健提供者之间建立合作关系存在障碍，但通过相互尊重、理解和使用 mhGAP 干预指南进行适应性培训，应该有可能让一些传统治疗师了解一些重点精神健康问题的识别、治疗和转介的核心原则。
