Mental illness has multiple causes: beliefs on causes of mental illness by congregants of selected neo-prophetic churches in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The present study explored perceived causes of, and preferred treatment approach for, mental illness among congregants of six Neo-prophetic churches in Accra and Kumasi through in-depth interviews. Using thematic analysis, five themes emerged from participants’ causal attributions of mental illness. These included lifestyles and environmental stressors, spiritual causes, interaction of multiple factors, trauma and biological causes. Additionally, participants discussed four main mechanisms through which stress leads to mental illness. These included persistent worrying over stressors, use of inappropriate coping strategies to cope with stress, refusal to talk about one's problems and individuals’ appraisal of stress and available coping resources. These beliefs directly determined congregants’ preferred treatment approach. Implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental illness
• spirituality
• causal explanation
• congregants
• neo-prophetic churches

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Joana Salifu Yendork http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5665-3404

Lily Kpobi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7074-5804

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College, with support from John Templeton Foundation [grant number 2016-SS360].