Characteristics of undergraduate, second speciality and sub-speciality mental health programmes in Peru: a scoping review

Abstract

Background: Peru has a deficit in mental health care with 10,051 mental health workers per 100,000 inhabitants. The aim of this study was to characterise the offer of undergraduate and second speciality mental health programmes in Peru.Method: We conducted a scoping review of mental health training offered by Peruvian universities. We searched for programmes in the University Information System database and on the universities' websites. We extracted the name of the university, the name of the programme, the target population, the duration, the cost, the learning environment, the region, and the type of institution where they are offered. We collated the information and used descriptive statistics to analyze the data.Results: We found a total of 252 undergraduate and 63 second speciality programmes, with 43% and 54% of the programmes respectively offered in the capital city. Undergraduate mental health programmes last between 3 and 7 years and cost between US$ 55.71 and US$ 6,952.03 in private universities for the first semester. As for second speciality programmes, the total cost of the programme varies from US$ 729.26 to US$ 12,140.17, where the latter offers more practical training for physicians and nurses. Conclusions: In Peru, there are few undergraduate programmes oriented towards social work and medical technology (focused on occupational therapy and speech therapy), as well as a few second speciality programmes for psychologists. This affects the possibility of having multidisciplinary teams trained in mental health. We believe that to improve the competencies of professionals to manage mental health problems, institutions involved in health and education should develop policies to decentralise programmes, make them more accessible to low-income people, respond to mental health issues, and ensure the quality of all programmes.

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