Collaboration Between Spiritual (holy Water) Treatment And Biomedical Treatment At St. Mary Church Outreach Program Entoto Pattern Of Service Utilization And Attitude Of Holy Water Attendants

Introduction:rnThe explanation for mental illness in Ethiopia is mainly supernatural .That is why thernmajority of mentally ill people go to spiritual treatments, mainly holy water treatments.rnThe benefits of collaboration between biomedical services and holy water sites are many,rnincluding early detection and treatment of mental illness. The St. Mary outreach programrnaims to help mentally ill people at the St. Mary and St. Michael holy water sites by takingrnthe bio-medical treatment near them. This is done by volunteer Addis Ababa Universityrn(AAU) residents.rnMethods: This is a mixed quantitative and qualitative study.rnStudy 1: Descriptive evaluation of psychiatric patients that have attended the St. Maryrnoutreach program, Entoto from December of 2011 up to July of 2014. A data extractionrnform was used to extrat data from patient charts. Data was analyzed using SPSSrnstatistical software.rnStudy 2: A qualitative study of the holy water attendants ’ attitudes and role wasrnconducted from September to October of 2014. A semi-structured interview wasrnconducted using a topic guide. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed andrncoded manually. A thematic analysis was conducted.rnResult:rnStudy 1: A total of 174 charts were analyzed. The m ean number of patients seen perrnclinic session have increased by 50 %( 14) in 2005, then by 75 %( 25) in 2006. 79.3% werernmen, 73.3% had schizophrenia, 89.6% were educated and 61.7% came from Addis Ababa.rnStudy 2: The roles of the holy water attendants include ensuring the hygiene, securityrnand medication adherence of patients . They also act as gatekeepers to the St Mary Clinic.rnThere are two main attitudes towards treatment: both treatments are from God and wernshould use both and they contradict because using both is like doubting God. The otherrnattitude is they complement each other. The attitude of the attendants towardsrnbiomedical treatment is changing since the training from AAU psychiatrists. Thernattendants have their own way of differentiating who should come to the clinic and whornshould not. They bring patients who they consider mentally ill but they don’t bringrnpeople who have mental illness and spirit possession.rnConclusion: The conclusion of the study is that it is possible to collaborate betweenrnspiritual treatment and biomedical treatment.rnRecommendation: To continue having trainings for the attendants and communityrnawareness campaigns focusing on family members of people with mental illness

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