Egypt's Mental Health Care System

Mental health disorders are a growing problem worldwide. While Western countries are more open to discussing mental health issues, this isn’t the case in Arab and African countries. In Egypt, talking about mental health is considered taboo, leading to a large number of individuals seeking treatment from traditional healers (Okasha et al., 2020). There are numerous reasons why Egyptians tend to seek traditional care, a large factor being the presence of traditional healers in local communities, fostering a sense of community acceptance (Assad et al., 2015). A recent study found that although seeking care from traditional healers can sometimes result in a delay of obtaining necessary psychiatric interventions, having the option of seeing a traditional healer provides individuals in Egypt with care they can seek without cultural stigmatization, leading to more individuals seeking some kind of care rather than none at all (Shelali, et, al., 2023). This paper aims to provide a comprehensive view on the impacts of traditional healers on mental health outcomes in Egypt.