Pages

Search This Blog

Saturday, December 31, 2011

A documentary about Mental Illness in Ethiopia


After the Italians left during their occupation of Ethiopia, Amanuel Hospital was used as an asylum for the mentally ill. There were no psychiatrists or nurses; the patients were just locked up. 

However, Amanuel Hospital has changed alot over the last few decades, in large part due to a collaboration with the University of Toronto. Here, you get a close look into this beautiful country and how a psychiatry residency was established. 

The stigma of mental illness remains one of the main obstacles in treating mentally ill patients. Seeing a psychiatrist is often the last resort in Ethiopia, where the majority believe that mental illness is caused by spirits. People usually seek a number of traditional healers before even considering seeing a psychiatrist.

No comments: