Perception of Stake Holders About Adequacy of Training and Supervision for Community Mental Health Workers in Ghana

Abstract

Background There is growing interest in the effectiveness of task shifting as a strategy for addressing expanding health care challenges. Aim To examine the perception of stakeholders about the adequacy of the training, supervision and support offered to community mental health workers in Ghana. Methods We administered three separate self-administered semi-structured questionnaires to 11 psychiatrists and 29 health policy coordinators and 164 Community Mental Health Workers (CMHWs), across Ghana including, 71 (43.3%) Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPNs), 19 (11.6%) Clinical Psychiatric Officers (CPOs) and 74 (45.1%) Community Mental Health Officers (CMHOs). Results Almost all the stakeholders believed CMHWs in Ghana receive adequate training for the role they are expected to play but not the role they actually play within the health delivery system. There were statistically significant differences between the different CMHW groups and the types of in-service training they said they had attended, the frequency with which their work was supervised and the frequency with which they receive feedback from supervisors. CPOs were more likely attend all the different kinds of inservice training than CMHOs and CPNs while CMHOs were more likely than CPOs and CPNs to report that their work is never supervised or that they rarely or never receive feedback from supervisors. There was disparity between what CMHWs said were their experiences and the perception of policy makers. Conclusion There is a need to review the curriculum of the training institution for CMHWs and also to offer them regular in-service training and formal supervision.