Hi David,
I hope all is well with you, and that spring soon arrives in Chicago J
Joakim Norberg and myself are right now in the process of formulation a research project on psychotherapy/systematic psychological treatment in Ghana and an application for grants to such project. We are interested in investigating cultural beliefs on both causes and treatment (we think we will concentrate on depression). We have established some really promising contacts with some Ghanaian researchers at the University in Accra.
The reason that I write to you now is to ask you (I know you are interested in cultural aspects and the implementation of western therapies I other cultures) if you have any references and studies that could be useful for us when writing an application for funding of such a project. Any suggestions would be helpful.
One reference that we would like to find is about something we think is true: Knowledge about clinical problems was produced in North America and Europe. This is also true for evidence medicine.
It would be very helpful if you had any suggestions for references on this. This is one of our motivations why it would be interesting and important to investigate the issues in Ghana.
There is apossiblity to make an application here in Sweden for grants for studies on health issues that are relevant for low-income countries. So we became very interested in trying to get funding for such a project. It could be a very interesting study that also could include issues on therapists effects (comparing the more westerns systems of healing with the more traditional ones).
Best,
Jan