Malawi Educators Assessment of Student Mental Health Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose: This paper presents teacher perceptions of life improvements achieved by students following the application of a school based curriculum mental health literacy resource in Malawi.Methods: Life improvement metrics were generated based on educators' self-reported questionnaires obtained as part of the midterm evaluation of a larger youth Depression intervention project. These metrics include a stigma reduction variable, an improved behaviour at school variable, and a mental health related help-seeking variable.Results: Most teachers (81.3 %) reported a positive change in their students' attitudes toward mental illness following exposure to the mental health literacy curriculum resource. Ninety-six percent of teachers reported improvement in student behaviours at school, and all teachers reported one or more mental health care related help seeking behaviours among students.Research Limitations: The sample size was relatively small and recruited from only two districts in Malawi. This is a pilot field implementation and will need to be expanded with larger numbers into a greater number of school districts in order to improve the robustness of the findings.Originality/value: To our knowledge this is the first study to examine teachers' perspectives on student life improvement metrics related to mental health literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. This method of measuring the impact of school-based interventions on students in African schools may be a useful and culturally meaningful approach to youth mental health assessment.

Creating Evidence-Based Youth Mental Health Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Description of the Integrated Approach to Addressing the Issue of Youth Depression in Malawi and Tanzania

“…Prospective longitudinal cohort studies of provider knowledge, stigma, and self-confidence were conducted. Results obtained demonstrated significant positive impact of the intervention in all these domains (43–46).…”

“…Teacher refresher training was conducted about 6 months following initial training. This intervention demonstrated positive impacts with significant, substantial, and sustained improvements in all aspects of teacher’s mental health literacy, including improved knowledge, decreased stigma, and enhanced help-seeking personally and for friends and family members (40) as well as the application of this resource into classroom settings with positive outcomes (41–43).…”