Perception of parents on barriers and facilitators of treatment outcomes among children and adolescents attending psychotherapy services in a primary health care centre in Belize

Abstract

Background: The study assessed the perception of parents on barriers and facilitators treatment outcomes among children and adolescents attending psychotherapy services in a primary health care centre. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method used retrospective review of records of 65 children and adolescent clients who accessed psychotherapy services between January 2022 and December 2023 at Port Loyola Health Centre in Belize city. The qualitative method used in-depth interviews of twenty parents of the patients randomly selected from the clinic registers. Univariate and bivariate analyses was used for the quantitative data while thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data. Results: 25 (38.5%) of the patients completed their treatment and 34 (52.3%) dropped out, with half dropped out after the first visit. The identified parental perceived barriers and facilitators are organized into four main themes. The first theme was related to knowledge and understanding of mental health problems by the parents which showed that respondents had good knowledge about mental health problems. The second theme identified attitudes towards treatment as a major factor to completion of treatment. The third theme was related to structural factors like transportation cost and parents’ work schedule identified as key barriers. The fourth theme was related to inconvenient appointment time and lack of flexibility in the scheduling of appointment at the clinic. Conclusions: The study highlights key areas of interventions to minimize barriers to completion of treatment among children accessing mental health services.