This paper reports on findings from a year-long ethnographic exploration of help-seeking for serious mental illness (SMI) in Korail, an urban slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ethnography enabled insights into complex sociocultural, environmental and structural factors influencing responses to SMI and relationships between traditional and faith healers (TFHs), health workers and communities. Diverse healing practices were evident in Korail, including Islamic healers, indigenous practitioners (kobiraj), and numerous drug sellers. However, there were no formal mental health services within Korail. In this context, Islamic healers and drug sellers were widely accessed. While Islamic healers interpreted SMI as caused by Jinn possession and offered prayers and pani pura, drug sellers promised a solution through selling over-the-counter medicines. However, for most of these treatments were ineffective and unsustainable due to higher expenses. Therefore, people tended to use their village network to identify and access healers outside the slum who perform rituals specifically to address mental illness. Help-seeking is thus marked by uncertainty and experimentation, influenced not only by spiritual or cultural beliefs but also by treatment costs, accessibility of services, trust and desire for a permanent cure.
