title: West African beliefs about mental illness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Traditional West African beliefs about the cause and treatment of mental illnesses.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To demonstrate how learning about West Africa's cultural beliefs allowed the instructor to teach psychiatric nursing in a way that integrated, rather than dismantled, the students' cultural beliefs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Content analysis of West African students' written assignments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Psychiatric/mental health nurses must understand the client's culture in order to understand the client.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hales
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007988:Liberia; D008297:Male; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D016746:Transcultural Nursing