Abstract
BackgroundAbout 20–40% of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) suffer from depressive disorders (DD) during the course of their illness. Despite the high burden of DD among patients with DM, it is rarely identified and adequately treated at the majority of primary health care clinics in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The use of peer support to deliver components of mental health care have been suggested in resource constrained SSA, even though its acceptability have not been fully examined.MethodsWe conducted qualitative interviews (QI) to assess the perceptions of DM patients with an experience of suffering from a DD about the acceptability of delivering peer support to patients with comorbid DM and DD. We then trained them to deliver peer support to DM patients who were newly diagnosed with DD. We identified challenges and potential barriers to a successful implementation of peer support, and generated solutions to these barriers.ResultsParticipants reported that for one to be a peer, they need to be mature in age, consistently attend the clinics/keep appointments, and not to be suffering from any active physical or co-morbid mental or substance abuse disorder. Participants anticipated that the major barrier to the delivery of peer support would be high attrition rates as a result of the difficulty by DM patients in accessing the health care facility due to financial constraints. A potential solution to this barrier was having peer support sessions coinciding with the return date to hospital. Peers reported that the content of the intervention should mainly be about the fact that DM was a chronic medical condition for which there was need to adhere to lifelong treatment. There was consensus that peer support would be acceptable to the patients.ConclusionOur study indicates that a peer support program is an acceptable means of delivering adjunct care to support treatment adherence and management, especially in settings where there are severe staff shortages and psycho-education may not be routinely delivered.
Highlights
About 20–40% of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) suffer from depressive disorders (DD) during the course of their illness
A number of efficacious treatments for DD including antidepressants, psychotherapy, or a combination of both [19,20,21] are available for patients with co-morbid DM, and have been shown to lead to improvement in clinical outcomes including the reduction in DD symptom severity and improvement in glycaemic control [17, 22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29]
Phase II: characteristics of potential buddies Guiding questions/probes from the Jane Simoni Model were posed to elicit information about what they would perceive as characteristics of potential buddies
Summary
About 20–40% of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) suffer from depressive disorders (DD) during the course of their illness. Despite the high burden of DD among patients with DM, it is rarely identified and adequately treated at the majority of primary health care clinics in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). About 20–40% of patients with DM, including those from SSA, suffer from depressive disorders (DD) during the course of their illness [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. DM patients with co-morbid DD are likely to suffer from a number of adversities including sub-optimal hypoglycaemic control, poor medications adherence [15, 16], poor quality of life [17] and increased mortality [18]. A number of efficacious treatments for DD including antidepressants, psychotherapy, or a combination of both [19,20,21] are available for patients with co-morbid DM, and have been shown to lead to improvement in clinical outcomes including the reduction in DD symptom severity and improvement in glycaemic control [17, 22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29]
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