6.2 Assessing the Barriers to Increasing Mental Health Care Access for Depressed Adolescents in Guatemala: Clinical Perspectives of a Medical Student

Calhoun, Amanda; Barnes, Alicia

doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2018.09.366

Cited by 1 publication

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“…For example, training in psychiatry during residency and in medical school for non-mental health specialties is less than 1 month. Licensed psychologists have only the equivalent amount of training as do those with a Bachelor’s degree in the US (Calhoun & Barnes, 2018). More advanced training in mental health remains even more scarce (WHO, 2016) and specialized training focused specifically on suicide assessment and intervention is not provided at all.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of brief training on mental health provider’s knowledge of working with youth at risk of suicide in Guatemala

Alonzo

Popescu

Zubaroglu-Ioannides

2020

Int J Soc Psychiatry

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Background: Resources for mental healthcare are lacking in Guatemala, yet rates of mental illness and suicide are quite high. Mental healthcare providers often lack the knowledge needed to effectively work with young at-risk of suicide. To address this gap, we developed a training program for mental health professionals focused on increasing knowledge and understanding of engaging and working with youth at risk of suicide and present its acceptability and preliminary effectiveness. Methods: Mental health providers ( N = 17) from a low SES community participated in the training, Formacion CUIDAR (Comunidades Unidos para Individuales De Alto Riesgo; CARE Training; Communities United for Individuals at High Risk). Mixed methods were used to explore outcomes including, self-reported knowledge and understanding of warning signs; risk and protective factors; effective risk assessment; and, techniques for working with at-risk youth. Results: Findings indicate that the training was effective at increasing all targeted domains of knowledge ( t = 2.46, p < .05, Cohen’s d = .56). Acceptability was also rated as high. Conclusion: Scarcity of mental health specialists and lack of training on suicide assessment and management have resulted in inadequate resources for at-risk youth in need of mental health services in Guatemala. Results of our study demonstrate that our training is an acceptable, effective program for practicing mental health providers to address their lack of specialized training on how to work with individuals at risk of suicide. Further examination of the training in a larger RCT is required to attain more robust indictors of effectiveness and to assess long-term impact.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%