Effectiveness of Online Training on the Knowledge of Selected Childhood Mental Health Disorders among Teachers in Kaduna, NW Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: There exists a wide treatment gap for mental health problems in children and adolescents in Nigeria. Reducing the treatment gap and improving the reach of mental health care thus call for additional interventions such as harnessing teachers as well as other educational staff as a task-sharing strategy. This study thus aimed to determine the effectiveness of online-based training on the knowledge of selected childhood mental health disorders among teachers in Kaduna, North-Western Nigeria. Methods: A quasi-experimental study design was used and involved 50 teachers from 12 private and 12 public primary and secondary schools in Kaduna, Kaduna state. Participants were trained through the Zoom online medium, and training ran for three days in 2 sessions of morning and afternoon sessions per day. Each session lasted for 2 hours including time for questions with 2 hours break between sessions. Learning sessions were adapted from the Mental Health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG).Other materials that were not in the mhGAP-IG such as Covid-19 and its impact on child mental health were designed from current, evidence-based reference texts. For the outcome measures, questionnaires on the level of knowledge were administered to participants at pre-training and post-training. Data were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 25. Results: Participants had an overall percentage score of 70.24% on the “Correct” responses, 8% on the “Don’t Know” responses, and 17.76% on the “Incorrect” responses before the training. The online training demonstrated an increase in the overall percentage score on the “Correct Responses” to 79.76%; a decrease in the “Don’t Know Responses” to 1% and the “Incorrect Responses” to 15.24%. There was also an improvement in the mean scores of participants on each module covered. Conclusion: The online teacher training demonstrated an increase in the knowledge of participants, and a decrease in the misperceptions and lack of knowledge which is consistent with findings from other parts of the world.