Madagascar

IAC Member Associations & Organizations

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Additional Counselling Associations & Organizations

There is no available information on any counselling associations in Madagascar.

IAC Education Institute Members

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Additional Education Institutes

Université Catholique de Madagascar (UCM) coll

• Programme Types: Bachelor in Psychology, Master in Psychology 

American School of Antananarivo

IAC Member Centres/Group Practices

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Additional Centres/Group Practices

Holistic Healing Center Madagascar

Cabinet de Psychologie Appliquée (in French) 

In February 2013 Sanofi signed a 5-year partnership with the Minister of Public Health in Madagascar to improve the approach to the healthcare system in the area of epilepsy and mental health. The pilot program has been implemented in five regions (Analamanga,  Vakinankaratra, Amoron’i Mania, Vatovavy-Fitovinany and Sofia) in the country, representing a population of 4.4 million. According to the data, a door-to-door survey suggests that 34% of the Madagascar population (46% in the Antananarivo 5 area) will experience at least one mental disorder during their life.

The project has two specific objectives: 1. Training primary healthcare professionals on diagnosing and treating mental disorders. 2. Raising awareness among the general public about mental health disorders, through a set of Behavior-Change-Communication (BCC) interventions.

To date, 102 GPs have been trained through face-to-face training workshops, followed by individualized supervision sessions with a specialist. Several BCC materials in Malagasy language have been developed, and disseminated. An estimated 1,478,000 people have been reached through local TV and radio programs, in addition to the 4,641 teachers and children involved in epilepsy school awareness activities. 

There are few primary health clinics on the island that offer more than referrals to l’Hôpital Psychiatrique de Anjanamasina for severe cases, such as paranoid schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder.

Currently in the capital city of Antananarivo only has one institution or asylum known as l’Hôpital Psychiatrique de Anjanamasina that dedicates in treating the mentally ill patients with an equivalent of 120 beds and 60 physicians and nurses. The majority of primary health care doctors have received official in-service training on mental health within the last five years” (World Health Organization, 2011). Anjanamasina provides services for the severely impaired or incapacitated, but the allotments certainly do not suffice for treating the chronic mental ailments experienced within Antananarivo’s city limits, and much less for a population of 22.5 million (CIA World Fact book, 2010). In short, the most significant limit of allopathic mental health services in Madagascar is the dearth of licensed practitioners and funded clinics in which they can function. Before a family can decide whether or not they have the means to purchase chlorpromazine or haloperidol for their ailing loved one, a doctor or nurse must first consult the psychologically afflicted to determine whether her or she even requires some form of therapy. Thus, physical access to mental health services is the primary determinant of an individual’s potential for treatment. 

There are associations, hospital and online platform services.

The amount of insufficiency on the modern primary mental health provisions in Madagascar limiting their accessibility to the population financially, physically, and epistemologically, integration of allopathic and traditional services poses the most promising avenue for expanding the scope of its benefits to the Malagasy. 

For a deeper exploration of the counselling profession in the country, interested readers are recommended to read the following journal articles:

• World Health Organization. (2011). Madagascar. In Mental Health Atlas 2011 (Mental health services- atlases).