ArticleAfrican journal of primary health care & family medicine2019
Indigenous and faith healing in Ghana: A brief examination of the formalising process and collaborative efforts with the biomedical health system.
Article in African journal of primary health care & family medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Implementing healthcare decolonisation for Indigenous people: a systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2025Pooled it
- Interplay of gender, environmental sustainability, and cognitive impairment among older adults in Ghana: insights from the 2021 population and housing census.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Women's experiences with traditional medicine for the treatment of cervical cancer: a qualitative study.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Article
- The role of traditional healers and barriers to collaboration with biomedical providers in mental health service delivery in Wakiso district, Uganda: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Ethnographic study of Buruli ulcer wound management practices in a traditional therapeutic setting in Ghana.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- The ambiguities of social inclusion in mental health: learning from lived experience of serious mental illness in Ghana and the occupied Palestinian territory.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Inverting the deficit model in global mental health: An examination of strengths and assets of community mental health care in Ghana, India, Occupied Palestinian territories, and South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Ghana's herbal medicine industry: prospects, challenges and ways forward from a developing country perspective.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Views and experiences of traditional and Western medicine practitioners on potential collaboration in the care of people living with mental illness in Malawi.Malawi medical journal : the journal of Medical Association of Malawi · 2022Article
- Role of Faith healers: A barrier or a support system to medical care- a cross sectional study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2020Article
- The 6-star doctor? Physicians' communication of poor prognosis to patients and their families in Cape Coast, Ghana.BMJ global health · 2020Article
- Exploring the Potential of a Rights-Based Approach to Work and Social Inclusion for People with Lived Experience of Mental Illness in Ghana.Health and human rights · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundHealth seeking in many African countries typically involves making use of multiple healing systems, including indigenous and faith systems, as well as biomedical healthcare systems. These different systems have co-existed for many years in Africa, including in Ghana.
aimIn this article, we examine the formalising processes that non-biomedical healthcare in Ghana has undergone in postcolonial times. We first present a brief historical analysis of the process of organising indigenous medical systems into formal bodies. We then conclude by exploring collaborative efforts that have been undertaken between biomedical and non-biomedical health systems in Ghana.
methodA historical analysis of formalised indigenous healing systems in Ghana was done through an examination of relevant literature.
resultsFormal groups of indigenous healers in Ghana who are organised into specific categories have undergone various transformations over the years. Evidence also exists of collaborative programmes developed with traditional healers in Ghana, although these have been largely for primary health partnerships. With regard to mental health collaborations, attempts at integration have been generally unsuccessful, with various factors identified as hindering successful partnerships.
conclusionIndigenous healing is an important component of healthcare in Ghana. Collaboration between the different healthcare systems can be strengthened through accurate understandings of how key stakeholders are situated (and indeed situate themselves) in the conversation.
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