Knowledge, confidence, and practices of clinical associates in the management of mental illness
South African Journal of Psychiatry
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Knowledge, confidence, and practices of clinical associates in the management of mental illness | |
| Creator | Moodley, Saiendhra V. Wolvaardt, Jacqueline Grobler, Christoffel | |
| Description | Background: Additional human resources are needed to provide mental health services in underserved areas in South Africa (SA). Clinical associates, the mid-level medical worker cadre in SA, could potentially be used to deliver these services.Aim: The study explored the self-reported knowledge, confidence, and current practices of clinical associates related to mental health assessment and management.Setting: South Africa.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. The link to the electronic questionnaire was distributed to clinical associates via databases and social media. Data were analysed with Stata v17.Results: Of the 209 participants, 205 (98.1%) indicated they had training on management of patients with mental illness during their undergraduate degree and 192 (91.9%) had a mental health rotation. Few (10.7%) had any additional mental health training. Most participants rated their knowledge of priority mental disorders as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Only 43.2% of the participants felt quite or very confident to perform a mental health examination. Participants who felt quite or very confident to manage patients presenting with suicide risk, aggression, and confusion were 44.9%, 46.9% and 53.1%, respectively. Factors associated with a confidence score of 75% and higher were male gendered, working in Gauteng or Northern Cape provinces, and in a rural area. The majority of participants were already involved in mental health assessment and management in their current work.Conclusion: Clinical associates have a contribution to make in mental health service provision, but this may need to be supplemented by additional practical training.Contribution: Potential gaps in training have been identified. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2023-10-26 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v29i0.2074 | |
| Source | South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 29 (2023); 10 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/2074/3105
https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/2074/3106
https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/2074/3107
https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/2074/3108
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