Shamanism in Health Care

Strong belief regarding spirits and Gods in disease causation and its remedy by faith healers has been retained in Nepal till present day. Most of the people utilizing the service of faith healers claimed that their sickness were cured by their service suggesting high success rate. Various factors like service satisfaction of treatment in certain indigenous sickness, age old tradition, faith towards spiritual healing, high regards towards healers could be the reasons for retention of such practices in the country like Nepal. Further high treatment cost, lack of facilities in rural health centers, ineffective communication and behavior of health personnel and less regards towards the community values by Western Allopathic treatment system adds to the reasons for visiting faith healers' service even in medical urgency. Multi-faceted development programs from the government regarding disease and sickness (if viewed from the societal context) and coordination with existing healing systems (Naturalistic or Personalistic) to design and plan the health strategies at National level could help the people to combat the evil of health life effectively.

Autorentext

Author is working as an Assistant Professor, Sociology in a Medical Institute (BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan) for more than 10 years and involved in various teaching learning and research activities of UG and PG students of Public Health, Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing and supervised more than 15 theses works as a co-guide.