Kakuma, R., Barnes, S., Seixas dos Santos, H. and Palmer, L.  2015. Towards an integrated and accessible mental health care system in Timor Leste. In  'Timor-Leste: The local, the regional and the global'. Swinburne Press, Hawthorn, pp. 264-270. 

This paper reports on preliminary research carried out by an inter-disciplinary Australian and East Timorese research team which aims to 1) assist the Timorese Ministry of Health (MoH), Timorese NGOs and local communities to develop, deliver and evaluate accessible, culturally sensitive and integrative mental health services; and 2) contribute to the development of more integrated and sustainable health sector policies globally. Three key findings from the preliminary study were 1) the importance of traditional healers and customary practices in the success of mainstream treatment for any health condition; 2) the need to fully understand customary practices, underlying principles and traditional healers’ perspectives about health and mainstream health services, to build effective partnerships with the traditional healer community and to carry out an ethnographic study of their practices; and 3) given the sensitivities and complexities about culture, belief systems and mental health, collaboration with East Timorese researchers is a critical component of advancing knowledge in this field.