Rural professionals’ perceptions of interprofessional continuing education in mental health

Abstract

We describe the impact of an interprofessional education programme in mental health for professionals in six rural Canadian communities. The 10-session programme, offered primarily via videoconference, focussed on eight domains of mental health practice. One hundred and twentyfive professionals, representing 15 professions, attended at least some sessions, although attendance was variable. Data were collected between September 2006 and December 2007. The programme was evaluated using a mixed methods approach. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction for all topics and all aspects of the presentations: they were most satisfied with the opportunity to interact with other professionals and least satisfied with the videoconference technology. Professionals' confidence (n = 49) with mental health interventions, issues and populations was measured pre-and post-programme. There was a significant increase in confidence for seven of the eight mental health interventions and four of the six mental health issues that had been taught in the programme. Participants reported developing a more reflective mental health practice, becoming more aware of mental health issues, integrating new knowledge and skills into their work and they expressed a desire for further mental health training. They noted that interprofessional referrals, inter-agency linkages and collaborations had increased. Conditions that appeared to underpin the programme's success included: scheduling the programme over an extended time period, a positive relationship between the facilitator and participants, experiential learning format and community co-ordinators as liaisons. Participants' dissatisfaction with the videoconference technology was mitigated by the strong connection between the facilitator and participants. One challenge was designing a curriculum that met the needs of professionals with varied expertise and work demands. The programme seemed to benefit most of those professionals who had a mental health background. This programme has the potential to be of use in rural communities where professionals often do not have access to professional development in mental health.

The use of information and communications technologies in the delivery of interprofessional education: A review of evaluation outcome levels

“…MacDonald et al (2008) conducted a study utilizing open-ended questions and prompts and found that learners applied new skills in their practice after completing the described IPE module. Church et al (2010) also observed increases in mental health practitioners' self-reported confidence in interventions and knowledge of mental health issues, suggesting greater awareness about community resources, referrals, and collaborations. Six of the eight (75.0%) studies that reported outcomes at the acquisition of knowledge/skills level (2b) reported positive findings as a result of ICT-mediated IPE using pre-and post-test measures.…”

“…In two studies, Careau et al (Careau, Dussault, & Vincent , 2010;Careau et al, 2008) examined the utility of videoconferencing as a method for practitioners to meet and develop interprofessional care plans, noting that the technology could be effectively used to engage community partners and improve team productivity. Church et al (2010) used post-program focus groups and interviews at 6-12 weeks for professionals from 15 health care professions, who participated in a 10-week interprofessional rural mental health program. The authors described that inter-agency linkages, referrals, and consultations had increased noticeably after program participation.…”

Interprofessional mental health training in rural primary care: findings from a mixed methods study

“…These values represent the level of agreement. compared with a mean of 5.0/10 sessions, SD 2.9, for all participants (Church et al, 2010). There were no significant differences in Attitude or Perception change scores or postknowledge scores for community, profession, age or years of experience.…”

“…It was considered innovative in several respects: (a) it was longer than most rural mental health training programs (multiple sessions over approximately 20 weeks); (b) the training comprised both didactic evidence-based mental health intervention material and interactive experiential teaching tools and (c) the program was designed to simultaneously promote skill development in mental health interventions (stages of change model, motivational interviewing, solution-focused therapy, cognitive-behavioral approaches, assertive community treatment and crisis intervention) and increase interprofessional and intersectoral practice (Table I). Some outcomes from the program related to participant satisfaction (Heath et al, 2008) and impact on mental health knowledge and confidence (Church et al, 2010) have already been reported.…”

Opinião dos agentes comunitários de saúde sobre o uso da videoconferência na capacitação em saúde auditiva infantil

“…Conclusão: a videoconferência foi uma ferramenta válida e aceita pelos profissionais estudados para ser utilizada em programas de capacitação em saúde auditiva infantil. A videoconferência como instrumento frente às atividades de educação permanente em saúde é recente no país [4][5] , mas experiências internacionais acumuladas até o presente momento evidenciaram não somente resultados positivos, com a mudança do comportamento do profissional após a capacitação, como também grande aceitação do recurso tecnológico para estas atividades [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Na Portaria SAS n o .…”