Research

Strengthening the Paediatricians Project 2: The effectiveness of a workshop to address the Priority Mental Health Disorders of adolescence in low-health related human resource countries

Paul SS Russell¹ and Muttathu KC Nair²

¹  Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632 002, Southern India, India

²  Child Development Centre, Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram 695 011, Southern India, India

author email corresponding author email

Asia Pacific Family Medicine 2010, 9:3doi:10.1186/1447-056X-9-3

Published:	18 February 2010

Abstract

Background

Paediatricians can be empowered to address the Priority Mental Health Disorders at primary care level. To evaluate the effectiveness of a collaborative workshop in enhancing the adolescent psychiatry knowledge among paediatricians.

Methods

A 3-day, 27-hours workshop was held for paediatricians from different regions of India under the auspices of the National Adolescent Paediatric Task Force of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. A 5-item pretest-posttest questionnaire was developed and administered at the beginning and end of the workshop to evaluate the participants' knowledge acquisition in adolescent psychiatry. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed on an intention-to-participate basis.

Results

Forty-eight paediatricians completed the questionnaire. There was significant enhancement of the knowledge in understanding the phenomenology, identifying the psychopathology, diagnosing common mental disorder and selecting the psychotropic medication in the bivariate analysis. When the possible confounders of level of training in paediatrics and number of years spent as paediatrician were controlled, in addition to the above areas of adolescent psychiatry, the diagnostic ability involving multiple psychological concepts also gained significance. However, both in the bivariate and multivariate analyses, the ability to refer to appropriate psychotherapy remained unchanged after the workshop.

Conclusions

This workshop was effective in enhancing the adolescent psychiatry knowledge of paediatricians. Such workshops could strengthen paediatricians in addressing the priority mental health disorders at the primary-care level in countries with low-human resource for health as advocated by the World Health Organization. However, it remains to be seen if this acquisition of adolescent psychiatry knowledge results in enhancing their adolescent psychiatry practice.