Formative research on a teacher accompaniment model to promote youth mental health in Haiti: Relevance to mental health task-sharing in low-resource school settings. (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Eustache, Eddy; Gerbasi, Margaret E; Severe, Jennifer; Fils-Aimé, J Reginald; Smith Fawzi, Mary C; Raviola, Giuseppe J; Darghouth, Sarah; Boyd, Kate; Thérosmé, Tatiana; Legha, Rupinder; Pierre, Ermaze L; Affricot, Emmeline; Alcindor, Yoldie; Grelotti, David J; Becker, Anne E
• Is Part Of: International journal of social psychiatry. Volume 63:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 314
• Page End: 324
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: Task-sharing -- mental health -- teachers -- access to care -- school-based; Social psychiatry -- Periodicals; 362.205
• DOI: 10.1177/0020764017700173
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7640

Abstract

Background: Task-sharing with teachers to promote youth mental health is a promising but underdeveloped strategy in improving care access in low-income countries. Aims: To assess feasibility, acceptability and utility of the teacher accompaniment phase of a school-based Teacher- Accompagnateur Pilot Study (TAPS) in Haiti. Methods: We assigned student participants, aged 18–22 years ( n = 120), to teacher participants ( n = 22) within four Haitian schools; we instructed participants to arrange meetings with their assigned counterparts to discuss mental health treatment, academic skills, and/or well-being. We measured student and teacher perceived feasibility, acceptability and utility of meetings with self-report Likert-style questions. We examined overall program feasibility by the percentage of students with a documented meeting, acceptability by a composite measure of student satisfaction and utility by the percentage with identified mental health need who discussed treatment with a teacher. Results: Favorable ratings support feasibility, acceptability and utility of teacher- accompagnateur meetings with students. The majority of students (54%) met with a teacher. Among students with an identified mental disorder, 43.2% discussed treatment during a meeting. Conclusion: This accompaniment approach to mental health task-sharing with teachers provided a school-based opportunity for students with mental health need to discuss treatment and has potential relevance to other low-income settings.