`Pir Sahab thrashed him to ward off evil spirits’: Study reveals 80% psychiatric patients visit faith healers, quacks in Kashmir

Srinagar: Two days ago, a young woman with disheveled hair walked into the Outpatient Department at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Kashmir (IMHANS). She was held tight by her husband who constantly assured her that there is no evil spirit guarding her.

“She exhibited symptoms of major depressive disorder and had tried to strangulate herself. The family took her to a faith healer who said she was possessed by an evil spirit that had to be beaten out of her. It was only when this approach proved to have no positive effect that the family decided to turn to a medical doctor,” the psychiatrist treating her said.

Over the decades, people in Kashmir have been experiencing serious psychological crises related to various factors, and the pandemic is the most recent addition to the major stressors.

Moreover, the approach to tackling mental health issues in the valley hasn’t undergone much change. A large section of people still believes that mental illnesses are caused by some unknown supernatural entities and consult a faith healer first before availing proper psychiatric treatment.

Take the case of a 24-year-old male who frequently got panic attacks and passed out. He was taken to a faith healer by his family who gave him a beating. This, according to him, was done to free him from the grip of an “evil spirit overpowering him”.

“It was a simple case of post-traumatic stress disorder. He was put on medicines and psychotherapy. Today, he is doing fine,” the doctor said.

A latest study titled, `Faith healing practices in the pathway to care for mental illness,’ was conducted at IMHANS, Kashmir. It was published in the Indian Journal of Applied Research.

The study aimed to find whether faith healing has any role to play in healing mental health and attempt to examine the circumstances that prompted the attendants of people suffering from mental health disorders to seek faith healers.

A total of 2500 patients were taken from the outpatient department of the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences-Kashmir from December 2019 to June 2020.

It was found that 80% of patients had already visited a faith healer either once or multiple times before seeking psychiatric treatment.

“The majority of the patients were females (63%), married (77%), illiterates (72%), unemployed (60%), from joint families (55%) of lower socioeconomic class (70%), with poor social support (72%) of rural background (67%), belonging to age group 18-40years (70%),” the study said.

Professor at IMHANS, Kashmir Dr. Zaid Wani said faith healers do form an important part of the health care system, especially for patients suffering from psychiatric disorders.

“In reserved societies like Kashmir, faith healers hold a vital place as they provide different helping services to the suffering people. But visiting a faith healer for years and leaving psychiatric disorders unattended by a professional can increase the gravity of an issue and in certain cases morbidity too,” Wani said.

Furthermore, faith healing practices, he said, are equally criticized as well as appreciated in our part of the world.

He emphasized that on average 70% of the patients consult faith healers before consulting a psychiatrist. “Furthermore 40-50% continue to visit even after consulting a mental health professional,” Wani said.

The senior psychiatrist stressed that faith healing establishments cannot be excluded, rather they should be psycho-educated about various psycho-social and mental health disorders, and the need for referral mechanisms for a better patient care system.

“Taking community-based approach into consideration, there is every possibility of convergence with these establishments after proper training and capacity building model of operation,” Wani said.

Syed Mujtaba, Coordinator at Child Guidance and Wellbeing Center, IMHANS, Kashmir pointed out that research has shown that in Kashmir many people have a positive association between religious faith, spirituality, and mental health.

“Moreover the paucity of all categories of mental health professionals in Kashmir has led to accessibility, acceptability, and availability gap of mental health services,” Mujtaba said.

He said in absence of non-integration of mental health services, this major gap is filled by faith-based mental health in Kashmir, furthermore, in most cases, a person suffering from some mental health issues is availing services of mental health professionals, simultaneously they visit the faith leaders.

“Therefore, we can’t deny their role and the need for today is that service providers mapping needs to take into account the pluralistic approaches of mental health seeking like faith healers,” Mujtaba said.

He maintained that the government in collaboration with mental health organizations should take immediate steps to train the faith healers in the identification of some mental health and psychosocial issues so that they would be able to provide first-hand counseling services to the families and individuals and a proper referral mechanism may be built with service providers.