“All in good faith?” An ethno-historical analysis of local faith actors’ involvement in the delivery of mental health interventions in northern Uganda

Beyond the individual
The authors argue that local faith actors actions on mental distress go far beyond an individual dimension and are often tied to social fabrics and unbalanced social relations. They argue that humanitarianism’s engagement with local faith actors frequently overlooks essential aspects of their social role in the communities where they exist and operate.
Healing marketplace
The authors draw on the concept of a competitive healing marketplace – where people prefer to engage with local faith actors or traditional actors for their mental health needs – to explain why, in both case studies explored in this article, it has been so difficult for humanitarian mental health professionals to establish themselves in these contexts and encourage those in need to access their services.
Uncritical humanitarian engagement
Building on the case study of the Palabek Refugee Settlement in South Sudan, the authors argue that humanitarian actors’ uncritical engagement with local faith actors risks legitimising exclusionary practices connected to faith healing. In a context where Christian conversion and allegiance has often been premised on denouncing ‘other’ religious practices, local faith actors often posit themselves as arbiters dictating the right way to heal at the exclusion of other therapists which has historically had violent repercussions.
Comment:
This article highlights a new, more nuanced, phase for the field of faith sensitive MHPSS in humanitarian contexts through criticising the humanitarian sphere’s uncritical engagement with local faith actors to provide MHPSS. This is an important article because it brings together a large body of work on religious actors and social healing from within the field of anthropology, which has historically been sidelined by humanitarianism, and which is some ways stands in tension with humanitarianism’s positive visions of faith-based healing. It also ties these debates into the legacy of colonialism and provides a detailed example of how gender impacts local faith actors’ actions in addressing mental distress.