TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating mental health screening into routine community maternal and child health activity
T2 - experience from Prevention of Mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) trial in Nigeria
AU - Iheanacho, Theddeus
AU - Obiefune, Michael
AU - Ezeanolue, Chinenye O.
AU - Ogedegbe, Gbenga
AU - Nwanyanwu, Okey C.
AU - Ehiri, John E.
AU - Ohaeri, Jude
AU - Ezeanolue, Echezona E.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Catholic Bishops of Enugu and Awgu; the Anglican Bishop of Enugu and Archbishop of Oji-River. Their feedback was very instrumental to the development of this protocol. We are also grateful to the team of research assistants, program coordinators and educators for their work on this project: Dina Patel; Aaron Hunt; Alice Osuji; Amaka Ogidi; Annuli Ike; Nnabundo Musei, Benedicta Ozonweke and the many volunteers of PeTR-GS; The study was co-funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) under award number R01HD075050 and HealthySunrise Foundation. The funding agencies played no role in the study conception, design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, The Author(s).
PY - 2015/3/1
Y1 - 2015/3/1
N2 - Purpose: Although the prevalence of mental health disorders in Nigeria is comparable to most developed countries, access to mental health care in Nigeria is limited. Improving access to care requires innovative approaches that deliver mental health interventions at the community level. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of integrating mental health screening into an existing community-based program for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV targeted at pregnant women and their male partners. Methods: Pregnant women and their male partners from 117 churches enrolled in the healthy beginning initiative (HBI) in southeast Nigeria participated in the mental health screening project. Two members from each church were trained as church-based health advisors to administer the 12-item general health questionnaire. Results: Ninety-three percent of the pregnant women and their male partners agreed to participate and fully completed the questionnaire. Overall, 21.7 % of the respondents scored above the threshold of 11 indicating significant psychological distress, with women having significantly higher scores than men. Conclusion: Mental health screening is feasible and well accepted among a cohort of pregnant women and their male partners. Church members can be trained as health advisors to administer mental health screening. Mental health interventions can be developed on the framework of the HBI.
AB - Purpose: Although the prevalence of mental health disorders in Nigeria is comparable to most developed countries, access to mental health care in Nigeria is limited. Improving access to care requires innovative approaches that deliver mental health interventions at the community level. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of integrating mental health screening into an existing community-based program for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV targeted at pregnant women and their male partners. Methods: Pregnant women and their male partners from 117 churches enrolled in the healthy beginning initiative (HBI) in southeast Nigeria participated in the mental health screening project. Two members from each church were trained as church-based health advisors to administer the 12-item general health questionnaire. Results: Ninety-three percent of the pregnant women and their male partners agreed to participate and fully completed the questionnaire. Overall, 21.7 % of the respondents scored above the threshold of 11 indicating significant psychological distress, with women having significantly higher scores than men. Conclusion: Mental health screening is feasible and well accepted among a cohort of pregnant women and their male partners. Church members can be trained as health advisors to administer mental health screening. Mental health interventions can be developed on the framework of the HBI.
KW - Adult Nigerians
KW - Community and church-based screening
KW - General Health Questionnaire 12
KW - Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)
KW - Maternal and child health
KW - Mental health screening
KW - PMTCT
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U2 - 10.1007/s00127-014-0952-7
DO - 10.1007/s00127-014-0952-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 25201181
AN - SCOPUS:84922476333
VL - 50
SP - 489
EP - 495
JO - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
JF - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
SN - 0933-7954
IS - 3
ER -