Abstract
The aim of this study was to design and develop a set of, short message service (SMS) to promote specialized mental health care seeking within the framework of the Allillanchu Project. The design phase consisted of 39 interviews with potential recipients of the SMS, about use of cellphones, and perceptions and motivations towards seeking mental health care. After the data collection, the research team developed a set of seven SMS for validation. The content validation phase consisted of 24 interviews. The participants answered questions regarding their understanding of the SMS contents and rated its appeal. The seven SMS subjected to content validation were tailored to the recipient using their name. The reminder message included the working hours of the psychology service at the patient's health center. The motivational messages addressed perceived barriers and benefits when seeking mental health services. The average appeal score of the seven SMS was 9.0 (SD±0.4) of 10 points. Participants did not make significant suggestions to change the wording of the messages. Five SMS were chosen to be used. This approach is likely to be applicable to other similar low-resource settings, and the methodology used can be adapted to develop SMS for other chronic conditions.
Highlights
Mental disorders are currently one of the most prevalent and disabling conditions worldwide, and have become an important issue for public health [1,2]
The main objective of this paper is to describe the content design, development and content validation of a set of short message service (SMS) used as part of the implementation of a mental health intervention at the primary care level in Peru
We report on the design and content validation of a set of SMS to support the linkage of participants that were screened for common mental health disorders with further mental health care at the primary care level
Summary
Mental disorders are currently one of the most prevalent and disabling conditions worldwide, and have become an important issue for public health [1,2]. Despite its ever-increasing relevance, most healthcare systems have not adequately addressed this issue, and mental disorders continue to be underdiagnosed and undertreated [5, 6], creating what is currently known as a mental health treatment gap [7]. Short message service (SMS) has been widely used in patient follow-up and disease management, showing improvements in medication adherence, symptom monitoring, attendance to appointments, and satisfaction with health services [17, 19,20,21,22], for conditions such as diabetes [23] and cardiovascular disease [24]. The aim of this study was to design and develop a set of, short message service (SMS) to promote specialized mental health care seeking within the framework of the Allillanchu Project
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