Mental illness

Abstract

Mental illness has been attributed to supernatural forces, such as spirits which enter a person’s body or the shadow cast by an evil eye. The personal and social consequences of mental illness, although less obvious than those of physical disease and malnutrition, are nevertheless great. Children under 15 years of age have received special attention by primary health care workers because of their vulnerability to disease and malnutrition. Community surveys in Ethiopia have been possible with the help of simple assessment techniques developed by World Health Organization (WHO) for use in developing countries. In community surveys, certain demographic characteristics were associated with the likelihood of reporting neurotic symptoms. As a result of a WHO-sponsored, multidisciplinary workshop on mental health services in Ethiopia, a number of recommendations were made to improve services. One recommendation was to increase training of psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and occupational therapists.