Makanjuola V., Doku V., Jenkins R., Gureje O.
Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria; WHO Collaborating Centre, United Kingdom; Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom
Makanjuola, V., Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria; Doku, V., Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom; Jenkins, R., WHO Collaborating Centre, United Kingdom, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom; Gureje, O., Department of Psychiatry, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
Background: There is a huge unmet need for mental health services in low- and middle-income countries such as Nigeria. It has been suggested that one way of bridging the service gap is to plan for the effective integration of mental health services into primary care. We present the impact of a one-week training workshop on attitudes to and knowledge of mental health issues among the tutors of community health workers. Method: An intensive one-week training workshop was organised for 24 trainers of community health officers from eight Nigerian states. The package was designed for the training of primary care workers in low-income countries by one of the authors (RJ). Participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess knowledge of and attitudes to mental health issues before and on completion of the training. Results: There were 24 participants with a mean age of 47 years (SD ± 4.89). Eighteen (75%) of the participants were female. The overall assessment of knowledge of mental health issues increased from a mean score of 60.4% before training to a mean score of 73.7% after the training (t-test = 4.48, P = 0.001). Conclusion: We reported a significant improvement in the knowledge and attitudes of tutors of community health workers following an intensive one-week training workshop. This, we believe, should improve the quality of pre-service mental health training for community health workers and hopefully impact on mental health service delivery at the primary healthcare level. © 2012 Radcliffe Publishing.