Duration of restraint ranged from 3 months to 30 years (mean = 8.1 years, SD = 8.3 years). We applied a holistic community-based intervention model that combined the use of psychiatric medication, (family) counselling, and clinical hypnotherapy, while utilizing the spiritual beliefs of the affected communities, such as meditation and purification ceremonies. Additionally, we set up educational workshops for the families and their communities on the relevant mental health aspects.
After 19 months of holistic treatment, none of the patients was restrained or confined anymore, only two still exhibited a relatively severe symptomatology that required further intensive treatment, while the rest had fully or almost fully recovered with minimum requirements for further medication or otherwise intervention. It is our conviction that through the prudent and systematic implementation of holistic, culturally sensitive and community-based strategies, a development of a mental health model can be achieved that offers a fair and effective service and prevents the adoption of desperate measures by the affected populous that lead to an abuse of human rights.
