Accessible continued professional development for maternal mental health

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Accessible continued professional development for maternal mental health
 
Creator Field, Sally Abrahams, Zulfa Woods, David L. Turner, Roseanne Onah, Michael N. Kaura, Doreen K. Honikman, Simone
 
Subject mental health; maternal mental health; education maternal mental health; continued professional education; distance learning; low-resource; peer-based
Description Background: Changing global health and development trends have resulted in a need for continued professional development (CPD) within the health and development sectors. In low-resource settings, where the need for training and CPD may be highest, there are significant challenges for disseminating information and skills. There is a need to improve mental health literacy and reduce levels of stigma about maternal mental illness. The Bettercare series of distance learning books provides a peer-based format for CPD. We aimed to evaluate the Bettercare Maternal Mental Health book as a format for CPD.Aim: The aim of this study was to determine whether the Bettercare Maternal Mental Health book significantly improves knowledge and decreases stigma around mental health for care providers from the health and social development sectors.Setting: One hundred and forty-one participants (social workers, nursing students and health professionals) were provided with the Bettercare Maternal Mental Health book to study.Methods: Before and after studying the book, the same multiple-choice knowledge test and the Mental Illness Clinicians’ Attitude Scale were used to assess cognitive knowledge and mental health stigma, respectively.Results: Participants’ knowledge showed a statistically significant (p  0.001) improvement between the pre- and post-test results, for all six chapters of the book. However, participants’ attitudes towards mental illness did not show a statistically significant change between the pre- and post-test results.Conclusion: We found that this method of learning elicited significant improvement in mental health knowledge for care providers. Continued professional development policy planners and curriculum developers may be interested in these findings.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Harry Crossley Foundation
Date 2019-01-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Pre-Post Test; Survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.1902
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 11, No 1 (2019); 7 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
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://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1902/2975 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1902/2974 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1902/2976 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1902/2969
 
Coverage Global; Africa; South Africa 2016-2017 male and female; rural and urban; health care providers
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Sally Field, Zulfa Abrahams, David L. Woods, Roseanne Turner, Michael N. Onah, Doreen K. Kaura, Simone Honikman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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