Impact of Mental Health Training on Village Health Workers Regarding Clinical Depression in Rural India

Village health worker (VHW) programs are known to be effective means of promoting health of communities. Comprehensive rural health project in India recently trained VHWs to identify, refer, and help people with mental health issues. This study evaluated knowledge, attitude, and behavior of VHWs reg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Community mental health journal 2014-05, Vol.50 (4), p.480-486
Main Authors: Paudel, Shreedhar, Gilles, Nadege, Hahn, Sigrid, Hexom, Braden, Premkumar, Ramaswamy, Arole, Shobha, Katz, Craig
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Attitude of Health Personnel
Attitudes
Brief Report
Community and Environmental Psychology
Community Health Workers - education
Depression
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - psychology
Education
Focus Groups
Health
Health promotion
Humans
India
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental Health
Mental Health - education
Mental health care
Psychiatry
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural Health Services - organization & administration
Rural Population
Supervision
Training
Villages
Workers
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Summary:Village health worker (VHW) programs are known to be effective means of promoting health of communities. Comprehensive rural health project in India recently trained VHWs to identify, refer, and help people with mental health issues. This study evaluated knowledge, attitude, and behavior of VHWs regarding depression. Cluster sampling was used including all 36 VHWs trained in mental health. Among these, 24 were available and willing to participate in the study. Five FGDs were conducted among 24 VHWs, and the results were analyzed qualitatively. Four out of five groups were able to diagnose the presented case correctly as depression. VHWs were able to identify many symptoms and to suggest management options for depression. They showed supportive and empathetic attitudes towards depressed patients. VHWs are likely to be useful at identifying and assisting people with depression in the communities with lack of adequate resources provided they receive ongoing training and supervision.
ISSN:0010-3853
1573-2789
DOI:10.1007/s10597-013-9630-6