The Role Of The Asante Traditional Healers In The Management Of Mental Disorders In Ghana

ABSTRACT The role of traditional healers in Africa, in general, and Ghana, in particular, cannot be underestimated. The many reasons leading to this could include, but not limited to, inadequate access to quality health care in terms of facilities, health personnel and affordable health care. Inasmuch as efforts have being put in to standardize the practices of traditional healers to offer health services in Ghana, there seem to be challenges especially in the area of mental/psychological health service. This research report gathered and documented the role of traditional healers in the handling of mental/psychological disorders in Ghana and limits itself to Asante Traditional Healers (ATHs). The report sought to find out the common mental disorders handled by the Asante Traditional Healers, the diagnostic criteria and/or tools with which they conduct their mental health service, their ways of treatment as well as their evaluative plans. It is a generally qualitative designed work yet having amount of quantitative data as a form of validation. Participants included forty-five (45) participants within the Asante Kingdom: these included fourteen practitioners, one in-charge chief and thirty (30) of their clients. Interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data. This was between May and June 2017. After appropriate analysis it came out that the ATHs sometimes really attend to real cases of mental and psychological disorders through divination and other means and they attempt to manage the cases to some level of successes amidst some few challenges. The write-up include some few suggestions for further research.