Psychiatry and folk healing: a dichotomy?
A mental health center's experience with folk healers in a Hispanic urban ghetto revealed a culturally accepted belief system based on a body of empirical knowledge that helps its members to cope with distress. The authors suggest that including folk healers as team members in the delivery of mental health services is a valuable contribution to psychiatry.
D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003469:Culture; D005495:Folklore; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D009519:New York City; D011570:Psychiatry