scholarly journals The concept of diseases and health care in African traditional religion in Ghana

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter White
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
African Traditional Religion ◽  
The Government

As human beings we sometimes in one way or another become sick, and therefore go for treatment depending on our choice of treatment (religious perspective or Western medical treatment). Although African traditional religion is not against a Western medical way of treatment or healing process, its followers believe that there are some diseases that Western medicine cannot treat, and therefore need spiritual attention, as it is sometimes practiced in churches. This article discusses the African traditional view regarding disease, causes of disease, how disease is diagnosed and treated, with a special focus on Ghana. The article also describes the role of the diviner or the African traditional priest or what others may term as ‘herbalists’. The advantages and disadvantages of the African traditional healing process are considered. The article concludes by discussing African traditional healing in the context of a contemporary health care discourse, as well as a proposal for dialogue between traditional healers, Western medical practitioners, the government of Ghana, and the governments of various countries where this issue may be applicable, to build a consensus in addressing health issues.

scholarly journals The patient relationship and therapeutic techniques of the South Sotho traditional healer

Curationis ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
MG Pinkoane ◽  
M Greeff ◽  
MJS Williams
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Traditional Healer ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Health Care Delivery System ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
The South ◽  
National Health Care ◽  
Therapeutic Techniques

Until 1996 the practice of traditional healers was outlawed in South Africa and not afforded a legal position in the community of health care providers. In 1978 the World Health Organization (WHO) identified traditional healers as those people forming an essential core of primary health care workers for rural people in the Third World Countries. However in 1994 the new South African government identified traditional healers as forming an essential element of primary health care workers. It is estimated that 80% of the black population uses traditional medicine because it is deeply rooted in their culture, which is linked to their religion. The traditional healer shares with the patient a world view which is completely alien to biomedical personnel. Therapeutic techniques typically used in traditional healing conflict with the therapeutic techniques used in biomedicine. The patients’ perceptions of traditional healing, their needs and expectations, may be the driving force behind their continuous persistence to consult a traditional healer, even after these patients may have sought the therapeutic techniques of biomedical personnel. The operation of both systems in the same society creates a problem to both providers and recipients of health care. Confusion then arises and the consumer consequently chooses the services closer to her. The researcher aimed at investigating the characteristics of the relationship between the traditional healers and the patients, explored the therapeutic techniques that are used in the South Sotho traditional healing process, and investigated the views of both the traditional healers and the patients about the South -Sotho traditional healing process, to facilitate incorporation of the traditional healers in the National Health Care Delivery System. A qualitative research design was followed. Participants were identified by means of a non-probable, purposive voluntary sample. Data was collected by means of a video camera and semi-structured interviews with the six traditional healers and twelve patients, as well as by taking field notes after each session. Data analysis was achieved by means of using a checklist for the video recordings, and decoding was done for the interviews. A co-coder and the researcher analysed the data independently, after which three consensus discussions took place to finalise the analysed data. The researcher made conclusions, identified shortcomings, and made recommendations for application to nursing education, nursing research and nursing practice. The recommendations for nursing practice are reflected in the form of guidelines for the incorporation of the traditional healers in the National Health Care Delivery System.

Unfunded Public Employee Health Care Benefits and GASB No. 45

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth K. Keating ◽  
Eric S. Berman
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Employment Benefits ◽  
Care Plans ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Government Accounting ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) recently released Statement No. 45, Accounting and Financial Reporting by Employers for Post-Employment Benefits Other Than Pensions and its companion Statement No. 43 for pooled stand-alone health care plans, which will profoundly affect American governmental finance. The goal of this article is to encourage governments to consider carefully a full range of options in funding and restructuring other post-employment benefits (OPEB). This article will review Statement No. 45's potential impact on governments and review existing disclosures in financial reports as well as bond offering statements. The article will discuss the statement's impact on budgets and governmental operations, including collective bargaining. Funding options under Statement No. 45 will be detailed, including the advantages and disadvantages of irrevocable trusts and OPEB bonds. The article will also discuss the impact of Medicare Part D subsidies received by governments, as well as the bond rating implications of policy decisions surrounding OPEB. As the largest government entities are just now implementing GASB Statement No. 45, estimates of the magnitude of unfunded OPEB liabilities are limited as are the strategies likely to be adopted to cover these obligations. This article offers a summary of the unfunded OPEB liabilities reported by states and major cities and suggests some measures for assessing the ability of these entities to address these costs.

scholarly journals Modern Desires, Knowledge Control, and Physician Resistance: Regulating Ayurvedic Medicine in Nepal

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Medical Certification ◽  
Traditional Practitioners ◽  
The Government

AbstractForms of medical regulation in Nepal are shown to limit health knowledge transmission in the name of protecting the people from health care providers both familiar and trusted. Within the last four years Nepal's Ministry of Health implemented controversial legislation requiring Ayurvedic medical practitioners to register with the government in order to practise medicine and to prepare plant-based medications. Traditional practitioners find the age and lineage requirements for those not holding medical certification in Ayurveda potentially devastating to their profession, and they have launched an active campaign resisting the new professionalisation requirements. These actions can be seen to result from the convergence of a rising modern Nepali state bureaucracy, the people's desire for a country free of high rates of morbidity and mortality, and the powerful ideology of Western-based health care modernisation guiding health development. I draw on recent research in Kathmandu and in two rural communities to summarise the role of Ayurveda in Nepal's health care, to analyse the politics behind the legislation and the traditional healers' response, and finally to suggest the legislation's impact on health care.

The Forgotten Widows of Vrindavan in India

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
Rekha Pande
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Cultural Status ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City ◽  
Women In India

This chapter looks at some of the issues of old women in India with a special focus on widows in the city of Vrindavan. In India, social mores inhibit women from re-marrying, resulting in an increased likelihood of women ending up alone. In many conservative Indian Hindu families, widows are shunned because they're seen as bringing bad luck. Most of these widows find refuge in Vrindavan. The data for this study was collected through interviews with 50 widows and two group discussions in the six homes (ashrams) for the widows. Data was collected pertaining to their age, literacy, socio-economic background, marriage, life after marriage, work, experiences of widowhood, and their stay in Vrindavan. The chapter concludes by stating that very little information is available on these widows. There is a need for better data collection and research on the inheritance practices, socio-economic and cultural status of widows, as widows are left out of many schemes and policies of the government. These widows need to be treated as human beings and brought to the mainstream of the women's movement.

The Strategic Value of Big Data Analytics in Health Care Policy-Making

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed M. Zolbanin ◽  
Dursun Delen ◽  
Sushil K Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Health Care Policy ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Policies

This article describes how the metrics that are used to gauge acceptable versus inadequate care have spurred debates among health care administrators and scholars. Specifically, they argue that the use of readmissions as a quality-of-care metric may reduce patients' safety. Consequently, the new well-intended policies may prove ineffective, or even worse, yield disappointing results. While the discussions over the advantages and disadvantages of the new policies are based more on conjectures rather than on evidence, analytics provides a vehicle to measure the effectiveness of such overarching strategies. In this effort, the authors analyze large volumes of hospital encounters data before and after the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to show how overlooking some aspects of a problem may lead to unexpected outcomes. The authors conclude that the feedback provided by big data analytics can be used by the government and organization policymakers to obtain a better understanding of loopholes and to propose more effective policies in prospective endeavors.

Traditional Healing in the Prevention and Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Abuse

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang G. Jilek
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
Folk Beliefs ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
Prevention And Treatment ◽  
Alcohol And Drug Abuse ◽  
Traditional Practitioners ◽  
Traditional Approaches

This article reviews traditional non-Western approaches to the treatment and prevention of substance abuse and dependence. Therapeutic practices reported here are based on Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, Islamic and shaman ic traditions as well as on syncretistic Christianized folk beliefs. Traditional practitioners operate outside the official health care system but in some areas in collab oration with it. Analysis of these practices reveals general principles of traditional healing and permits hypotheses on the advantages and disadvantages of traditional approaches.

scholarly journals Efficiency and Outcome of Healing Practices Performed by Spirit Dancers in Healing Mental Illness – A Patient’s Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 803-808
Author(s):  
Prakasha Amin ◽  
Mohan A.K
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
Traditional Healing ◽  
Black Magic

BACKGROUND In many rural communities, the cause of mental illness is attributed to black magic, spirit possession of past sin and the coastal region of Karnataka is not exempted from it. The natives of this region ascribe the cause of mental illness to the spirit or demigod, and they seek the help of traditional healers such as spirit dancers for the recovery. This help-seeking behaviour of the people results in delay in seeking psychiatry care and affects the recovery of the person with mental health problems. Therefore, this study explores the opinion of clients undergone traditional healing for mental health problems and the results of the study could contribute to planning an appropriate health promotion activity to promote community mental health. METHODS The present study was explorative, undertaken in the Udupi district of Karnataka state, which explores the views of the respondents about the cause of mental health problem and the outcome of traditional healing for their problems. Altogether 200 clients visiting traditional healers for mental health care were interviewed based on the snowball sampling technique and the interview schedule was used as a tool to gather the data. RESULTS Of the 200 respondents interviewed, 27.5 percent were adults (31 to 40 years), while 43.1 percent were unemployed. Black magic was found to be the major cause for mental health problems among 25.5 percent of the respondents; whereas, 26 percent of the respondents felt recovered completely after undergoing traditional healing for mental health problems. CONCLUSIONS The recognition of mental health problems is very much essential for people with mental health problems to seek professional help. This could help mental health professionals to diagnose illness at the very beginning and provide better mental health care. However, the explanatory model of the patients needs to be taken into consideration while providing modern medical care. KEY WORDS Black Magic, Mental Illness, Serpent Worship, Spirt Dancer, Traditional Healers

Traditional Medicine, Biomedicine and Christianity in Modern Zambia

Africa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaori Sugishita
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Traditional Medicine ◽  
National Health ◽  
Traditional Healers ◽  
World Health ◽  
National Health Care ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
Health Organization

The World Health Organization has recognized ‘traditional medicine’ as ade factoand economical substitute for biomedicine in the developing world. Accordingly, the Zambian government aims to integrate ‘traditional healers’, locally known asng'anga, with their biomedical counterparts in a national health care system. Hence, on the one hand,ng'angaelaborate their practice into ‘herbalism’, which could meet scientific standards and fit into the scope of biomedicine. On the other hand, they continue to deal with affliction by positing the existence of occult agents, such as witchcraft and spirits, at the risk of being criticized for exploiting indigenous beliefs. As a result, manyng'angaassociate themselves with Christianity, the national religion of Zambia, which serves as an official domain of the occult where they take refuge from biomedical rationalization. However, conventional churches, the government and health authorities do not approve of the link between Christianity and traditional medicine; henceng'angaas traditional healers are marginalized in modern, Christian Zambia. Being thus dissociated from the national religion,ng'angaare officially confined to the periphery of national health care, where they submit to the primacy of biomedicine and the workings of state power.

scholarly journals Occultism in an African context: a case for the Vhavenda-speaking people of the Limpopo Province

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. D. Mashau
Keyword(s):  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Spiritual World ◽  
The World ◽  
African Worldview ◽  
African Context ◽  
African Traditional Religion

Occultism in Africa is as old as the primal religion itself, or what came to be known as African Traditional Religion (ATR) in mo- dern times. It dates back to time immemorial. Occultism in Africa has taken various forms and has manifested in different ways over the ages, i.e. spiritism, divination, witchcraft and ma- gic. The underlying premise of African occultism is the belief in a spiritual world with spiritual forces that have power to inflict harm on the living. In the traditional African worldview suffering of every sort – illness, barrenness, drought and death – is nor- mally explained in personal terms: “there is always somebody”. This “somebody” often belongs to the world of the occult: a “spirit” has brought pain to human beings and must therefore be repelled or accommodated. This is very common among the Vhavenda-speaking people of the Limpopo Province. This ar- ticle seeks to investigate how occultism is practised among these people and to provide a reformed perspective as to how people who are suffering under demonic attacks can be helped. Contrary to other Christian traditions that see exorcism as the only way out, reformed theology suggests a missio-pastoral approach in dealing with the problem.

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