How cultural taboos and unconscious bias affect mental healthcare

Supporting nursing students influenced by cultural misperceptions about mental ill health to challenge these stereotypes, plus how others can overcome implicit bias

Growing up in a rural village in Nigeria, I always thought of mental illness as a disease to be dreaded.

Mental health conditions are often highly stigmatised across different cultures in Africa and other developing countries, with understanding and attitudes influenced by traditional beliefs that mental ill health has supernatural causes and is something to be feared.

Countries where mental healthcare is the domain of traditional healers

Research has shown that traditional belief systems in Africa play a key role in the perception and management of mental illness.