This paper reviews some recent research on the mental health ofthe First Nations, Inuit, and Metis ofCanada. We
summarize evidencefor the social origins ofmental health problems and illustrate the ongoing responses ofindividuals
and communities to the legacy ofcolonization. Cultural discontinuity andoppression have been linked to high rates

Aims: To determine the general characteristics of people with mental disorders in traditional healers centres in Sudan in
terms of sociodemographic profile, common clinical presentations and diagnostic features, and to look at the treatment
methods and intervention procedures used in these centres for treating people with mental illness.

Aims: To determine the general characteristics of people with mental disorders in traditional healers centres in Sudan in
terms of sociodemographic profile, common clinical presentations and diagnostic features, and to look at the treatment
methods and intervention procedures used in these centres for treating people with mental illness.

Indigenous ‘‘First Nations’’ communities have consistently associated their disproportionate
rates of psychiatric distress with historical experiences of European colonization.
This emphasis on the socio-psychological legacy of colonization within tribal
communities has occasioned increasingly widespread consideration of what has been

The views of a sample of Xhosa-speaking psychiatric nurses on
traditional healing and its role in mental health care in South Africa are
examined. We explore how the nurses manage apparent incompatibilities
between their practice of Western psychiatry and the use of traditional
healing services. Under normal circumstances this incongruity appears