How can mental health and faith-based practitioners work together? A case study of collaborative mental health in Gujarat, India
Abstract
Despite the knowledge that people with mental illness often seek care from multiple healing systems, there is limited collaboration between these systems. Greater collaboration with existing community resources could narrow the treatment gap and reduce fragmentation by encouraging more integrated care. This paper explores the origins, use, and outcomes of a collaborative programme between faith-based and allopathic mental health practitioners in India. We conducted 16 interviews with key stakeholders and examined demographic and clinical characteristics of the user population. Consistent with previous research, we found that collaboration is challenging and requires trust, rapport-building, and open dialogue. The collaboration reached a sizeable population, was reviewed favourably by key stakeholders—particularly on health improvement and livelihood restoration—and perhaps most importantly, views the client holistically, allowing for both belief systems to play a shared role in care and recovery. Results support the idea that, despite differing practices, collaboration between faith-based and allopathic mental health practitioners can be achieved and can benefit clients with otherwise limited access to mental health care.
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In contexts where faith healing is commonplace, mental health systems may struggle to collaborate with preexisting systems of healing, potentially hindering the ability to reduce mental health treatment gaps.
“Additionally, in contexts where faith healing is commonplace, mental health systems may struggle to collaborate with preexisting systems of healing, potentially hindering the ability to reduce the mental health treatment gaps [54, 66].”
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- Authors
- Shields, L., Chauhan, A., Bakre, R., Hamlai, M., Lynch, D., & Bunders, J.
- Affiliations
- Trimbos Institute/Netherlands Institute for Mental Health and Addiction, the Netherlands
- Hospital for Mental Health, India
- Altruist, India
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Venue
- Transcultural Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-05-19
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 368-391
- ISSN
- 1363-4615 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7471
- OpenAlex
- W2405826720
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 3.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Transcultural Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion, Society, and Development
- Keywords
- interprofessional collaboration, integrated care, treatment gap, mental illness, community mental health, holistic care, trust and rapport, Gujarat, access to mental health care
- MeSH terms
- Help-Seeking Behavior, Adult, Mental Disorders, Community Mental Health Services, Cooperative Behavior, Female, Humans, India, Interviews as Topic, Male, Middle Aged, Faith Healing, Qualitative Research, Young Adult
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