Nigerian Mental Healthcare Workers' Perception of Integration of Traditional and Western Medicine

Abstract

Background: There is a high level of unmet mental health needs in Nigeria thus the need for an integrated care involving all stakeholders in mental health delivery services.
Aims: The study aims to determine the perception of mental healthcare workers about the relevance of complementary and alternative mental healthcare (CAM) and their opinion on integrating CAM into the mainstream mental healthcare.
Methods: One hundred and three mental healthcare workers at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu, Nigeria, made up of 43 doctors, 52 nurses, five social workers, two pharmacists and one clinical psychologist were studied using a questionnaire developed by the researchers.
Results: Eighty eight (85.4%) of participants did not think that CAM should be integrated into mainstream mental healthcare while fifty two (50.2%) of them disagreed that CAM confers any benefits to the patients. Concerns about CAM centered mainly around quackery, bold claims, ineffective treatment, and delay on access to effective care. None of the factors tested distinguished those that wanted the integration from those that did not want: age groups (X² =4.341,df=2,p=0.114), gender (X² =0.911,df=1,p=0.340), religious affiliation (X² =5.857,df=3,p=0.119) and professional status of the respondents (X² =3.414,df=1,p=0.06)
Conclusion and Recommendation: There is a predominant negative perception of CAM among the respondents and they did not think that CAM should be integrated into mainstream mental healthcare. It might be important to open up CAM to researches and sensitize the mainstream healthcare personnel to reduce prejudice thus improving the possibility of integration for overall holistic care.

K e y Wo r d s : Perception , Integration, Mental healthcare, Alternative care practices.