I have been watching some of the developments in Africa as a whole in regards to "faith healing" and "exorcisms" and LGBT rights issues. Partly to see what, if any, the connection may be to Scott Lively's anti-gay propaganda but also to follow and better understand religious hocus-pocus that is unique to the continent. This article slipped by me but is important as it highlights the difficulties in battling the absurd.
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The Mental Health Authority (MHA), had been urged to train local pastors, otherwise known as faith healers and herbalists, on mental health care delivery, to enlighten them on how to treat mental patients in their care.
The call came from contestants from the (KNUST) in the just ended in Cape Coast.
The debate was on the topic; “Towards Mobilising Political and Social Will to Modernise Mental Health Care Delivery in Ghana: The Way Forward.”
The two contestants noted that from the research they had carried out, especially in the rural areas, most mental patients ended up at churches, healing camps and shrines.
According to them, some of these patients were found to be suffering from serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s syndrome, among others, which should be treated at recognized mental facilities.
Some patients, they said, were chained, while others were quarantined, with others subjected to all forms of inhuman treatment, which went against their fundamental human rights and freedoms.
They contested that mental patients also deserved the right to their freedoms and human dignity, under Chapter Five, Articles 12 (one and two), 14(one d) 16(one) and 17(one, two, and three) of the Constitution, and therefore, the public needed to accord them such respect, no matter the state of their mental illness.
Train faith healers, herbalists on mental health care | Health News 2014-10-23
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