A study led by Dr. Jason Bantjes of Stellenbosch University explores South African traditional healers’ work with suicidal individuals. The results of the study, published in a recent issue of Transcultural Psychiatry, suggest that South African traditional healers frequently work with suicidal individuals, and thus have an important perspective to contribute to the country’s suicide prevention-related public health efforts. The researchers found that healers support suicidal individuals by helping them strengthen social bonds, renew connections with family and ancestors, and reaffirm their cultural heritage through the use of rituals.
“Practitioners of traditional African medicine (traditional healers) are an important part of the health care system in South Africa, yet their voices are often absent from discussions about public health,” Bantjes and his team write.
Bantjes and his co-authors explain that their study is informed by the ‘cultural turn’ in critical suicidology. This approach, which focuses on questions of context and culture in suicide research and prevention, is intended to challenge psychiatry and biomedicine’s assumption that suicidal behavior is a sign of “mental illness.” The authors state that such a perspective is crucial given the “limited effectiveness” of biomedically-oriented suicide prevention efforts, as well as their unavailability in many parts of the world. However, they also caution against engaging in a dualistic way of thinking (biomedicine vs. culture), which they aim to avoid in their work:
[For more on this story by Rebecca Troeger, go to https://www.madinamerica.com/2...-suicide-prevention/]
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