Training community mental health staff in Guangzhou, China: evaluation of the effect of a new training model.

Jie Li,Graham Thornicroft,Yuanguang Huang,Wen Chen,Hui Yang,Juan Li

doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0660-1

Abstract

BackgroundIncreasing numbers of people with mental disorders receive services at primary care in China. The aims of this study are to evaluate impact of a new training course and supervision for community mental health staff to enhance their levels of mental health knowledge and to reduce their stigmatization toward people with mental illness.MethodsA total of 77 community mental health staff from eight regions in Guangzhou in China were recruited for the study.4 regions were randomly allocated to the new training model group, and 4 to the old training model group. Levels of mental health knowledge were measured by purpose-made assessment schedule and by the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS). Stigma was evaluated by the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes Scale (MICA) and the Reported and Intended Behavior Scale (RIBS). Evaluation questionnaires were given at the beginning of course, at the end, and at 6 month and at 12 month follow-up.ResultsAfter the training period, the 6-month, and the 12-month, knowledge scores of the intervention group were higher than the control group. At 6-month and 12-month follow-up, means scores of MAKS of the intervention group increased more than the control group (both p < 0.05) when age, sex, marriage status, title and time were controlled for. At 6-month follow-up, means scores of MICA of the intervention group decreased more than that of the control group (p < 0.01). At after-training, at 6-months, and at 12-months, mean scores of RIBS of the intervention group increased more than the control (p < 0.01, p < 0.001, p < 0.001) when age, sex, marriage status, title and time were controlled for.ConclusionsCompared with the traditional training course and supervision, the new course improved community mental health staff knowledge of mental disorders, improving their attitudes toward people with mental disorder, and increasing their willingness to have contact with people with mental disorder.

Highlights

Increasing numbers of people with mental disorders receive services at primary care in China
Aims we introduced a trial in Guangzhou, China, to improve the mental health knowledge of community mental health staff and decrease their stigma related to mental health
61 (79.2 %) the staff continued to engage in community mental health services, which means that the turnover rate of community mental health staff was 20.8 %

Summary

Introduction

Increasing numbers of people with mental disorders receive services at primary care in China. The mental health field is facing a serious human resource shortage and a huge treatment gap. It is a challenge faced by many countries to provide adequate human resources to deliver mental health service to those people who need treatment. To bridge the treatment gap, some researchers have proposed “Task shifting” ( named task sharing) which relies on shifting tasks from specialists to non-specialists to overcome shortages of human resources for mental health [5, 6]. Experiences suggest that providing assistance and supervision in training primary health care staff to identify and treat people with mental disorders by available specialist mental health staff can promote mental heath service to the public [8, 9]

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Conclusion