Psychiatrie et chronicités au Niger

Négocier les responsabilités du soin dans la maladie mentale au long cours

Abstract

Mental health care is a problematic theme, especially in contexts of poverty. How is long-term patient care organized when the available resources are limited? Based on an ethnography of a public mental health service in Niamey (Niger), this article tackles this question, focusing on the ordinary dilemmas encountered by medical staff as they deal with mentally ill persons and their kin. Attentive to local uses of diagnostic categories, the analysis illuminates the complex negotiations over care responsibility in this neglected public health domain.