7.3 Emerging themes and subthemes
7.3.14 Theme 8: Traditional health practitioners’ views on the collaboration between themselves and western health practitioners
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“...if you can be able to make him inhale the first medicines, they are going to make him calm down. I get directed by the divination bones. If I see that he is not improving, I consult the bones again to ask for further guidance since the first medicines did not work.”
(Participant THP7).
“I will provide her with my medication so that she must not complain any longer. That means he or she will just sleep like a baby. She must forget all the bad things. Whether she has experienced what kind of problems, she will just forget. Then secondly, I will provide her with the medication for other illnesses which she is suffering from like high blood.” (Participant THP10)
As can be seen above, there are many different treatment items and procedures in the management of mental illness by traditional health practitioners. Individuals with similar presentations may be treated differently as per the prescription of the divination bones.
7.3.14 Theme 8: Traditional health practitioners’ views on the collaboration
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best treated by us. Then, if we work together, we can help the nation.” (Participant THP8)
“...at certain times, there are conditions which the western practitioners are not able to treat, which needs traditional health practitioners. It is the same as other conditions which we are not able to treat, which we refer to hospitals.” (Participant THP11)
“...we are also free in the hospitals, we should know that this patient needs to be steamed up with smoke, we then take him to the private area, we then steam him up with smoke while is also taking the pills, because we do not say he must not take his pills.
Patients will then drink traditional medicine and also western medicine in a routine way.” (Participant THP10)
The collaboration can best be achieved through the referral system between the western-oriented practitioners and the traditional health practitioners in the event of need.
“We are going to help sick people and send them to the hospital for water and blood transfusion because we don‟t have equipments for transfusions. That way, people will be healed.” (Participant THP7) “We wish to achieve that through the manner of referrals. Such as when a person goes to see a doctor after which they give him a letter to go buy the medication from the chemist. Those are two things that work together. (Participant THP11)
The participants have different views about where their location will be when rendering their services. Some participants feel positive about the idea of working from home as they might not want to inconvenience other people with different belief systems as well as some cultural restrictions on their items of use.
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“I will appreciate working from home as there are types of healing in which you find that the divination bones do not have to go out of the yard. Sometimes we may not have a convenient place where we would put out medicines as there may be some prohibitions.‟
(Participant THP11)
“We will appreciate the idea of working from home, where patients can be sent to us in our homes. This is because people have different beliefs. Working at the hospitals will be infringing on the beliefs of those who do not believe in traditional practices. Even the methods we use, I can give an example with steaming, and it will inconvenience those whose beliefs are not the same as ours.”
(Participant THP8)
One participant on the other hand may be comfortable to have an office space in hospitals to be closer, which may help in cases of emergencies.
“Our wish is to be at the same place with them. If the western practitioners can agree to the idea of us having offices in hospitals, that is how we can manage it. If you see a patient who needs my services you are able to call me and send the patient to my office.
Unlike now, where I have a car but I don‟t have a driver. By the time I get a driver and rush to the hospital, it may be late. A person may die while I am still looking for a driver.” (Participant THP7)
Another participant has demonstrated her view of finding convenience in working from their specialised institutions.
“We wish they should build hospitals for traditional doctors. So that when a patient did not get cure in the medical hospital, must be transferred to us. On the arrival, we then look amongst ourselves who knows that type of illness; because we also do not have the same power (speciality).” (Participant THP10)
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As can be seen from the examples above, there are positive views about the collaboration of traditional health practitioners and clinical psychologists in the management of mental health conditions. The only limitations that have been highlighted, which may need to be looked at in the implementation of the collaboration include the referral processes, location of operation and procedures. In their view, the collaboration will assist in the two systems complementing each other‟s limitations to the benefit of their service recipients as well as enhancing the holistic approach to treatment that acknowledges the spiritual element in human beings.
PART C: CONVERGENCES AND DIVERGENCES FROM THE FINDINGS
This study has managed to uncover the similarities and the differences in the formulations of mental disorders by clinical psychologists and traditional health practitioners, which will be presented below.