Context

Background

After the disastrous earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, hundreds of thousands lost their lives. Those left in its wake, experienced extreme poverty, weakened governance structures, high levels of violence and alarming environmental degradation. Most troublingly, Haitians across the country felt the residual effects of major trauma and grief in the context of an under-resourced mental health system.

Six years later, there is a significant gap between mental health needs and mental health resources in Haiti. There are only 27 psychiatrists, 194 psychologists, 3 psychiatric nurses and 1 neurologist to serve a population of over 10 million (Raviola et al., 2013).  For many Haitians, this human resource scarcity is often further complicated by barriers related to cost, distance and stigma. For these reasons, accessibility to mental health care is extremely limited.

It is estimated that 99% of the Haitian population is religious with more than half practicing Vodou (CIA World Factbook 2003). However, it is more commonly reported that Haitians are 70% Catholic, 30% Protestant, and 100% Vodou due to significant overlap with other belief systems. As a result, many community members first turn to Vodou for support and healing.

In light of this significant pervasiveness, as well as shared goals, we have been working for the past two years on a project funded by Grand Challenges Canada to build capacity in mental health treatment in a way that blends the best of both worlds: evidence-based therapy and Vodou practice.

Specifically, the OTGH partnered with Haiti’s Commission Nationale de Lutte contre la Drogue (CONALD) and Mars and Kline Psychiatric Centre, and prominent spiritual leaders, to introduce and integrate cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) among spiritual leaders; the main informal providers of mental health care in Haiti. The goal was to transform the first point of care for depression and improve access to mental health care at the community level.

Expected impacts include:

• Increase capacity of spiritual leaders to recognize need, make appropriate referrals, and provide care.
• Provide a new model for improving access to effective and affordable community-based mental health care.
• Reduce divide between local beliefs and modern treatments to significantly transform the point of contact.
• Promote a holistic, blended approach to mental health care.

With the project funding soon to close, we want to ensure there is a lasting impact and that the Vodou community has the necessary resources to continue to learn about mental health treatment.

Read more about the project phases below:

• Part 1: Laying the groundwork through relationship building 
• Part 2: Information sharing and cultural adaptation process 
• Part 3: Using creative arts to train Haitian spiritual leaders on therapy for “crooked” thoughts 

 

References:

CIA World Factbook (2003).

Raviola, G., Severe, J., Therosme, T., Oswald, C., Belkin, G., & Eustache, F. E. (2013). The 2010 Haiti earthquake response. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 36(3), 431-450.