The mental health has long been neglected in Ethiopia, most sufferers resort solely to indigenousrnreligious healing therapies, and there is an extreme lack of awareness of mental related issues.rnIn order to improve the provision of mental health care we need to understand better how mentalrnhealth is perceived and how the indigenous religious and the biomedical therapies interact withrneach other. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to explore the conceptualisation of mentalrnillness and its treatments from the perspective of clients, caregivers and service providers, inrnspecific sites in Addis Ababa from an ethno-medical perspective. Use was made of anrnethnographic approach, i.e. a sub-branch of the qualitative approach, employing primary andrnsecondary data collection methods. The former including informal conversation, in-depthrninterviews, and participant observation the latter was based on critical review of relatedrnliterature and documents. All data were organized thematically and analysed using inductivernthematic analysis.rnThere was a period of intense field research including total immersion in the life context of twornspecific carer communities, one providing professional psychiatric care and the other a holyrnwater therapy centre. This faCilitated gaining in depth insights concerning indigenous conceptsrnand their relation to biomedical care. The motivating idea of the study is that in depth knowledgernof the life experience of care communities is the key to improving them.rnThe study found that the conceptualisation of mental illness varied according to the individual 'srncontext. The mentally ill were initially cared for by family members, followed mainly by religiousrntherapy and perhaps subsequently by biomedical treatment. Hospital treatment is based on arnbiopsychosocial model, stressing on supplying medicine to patients, although the continuation ofrnreligious therapy was not prohibited even after admission to the hospital. Factorsfacilitating therninvolvement of patients in their own care were found to induce agency and the absence of suchrnfactors constrained agency. Thus, based on the research, one can conclude that religious therapyrnis inherently agency oriented and the most accessed form of therapy for mental illness.rnConsequently, there is a need to integrate biomedicine with religious therapy in order to providernmental health services that is culturally appropriate and patient-centred.