Mobility grant of Ms Sol Durang

Project summary

The overall purpose of the mobility grant is to facilitate the establishment of a Danish-Mexican research network on mental Health and primary health care.

Mental Health disorders are one of the leading causes for disability-adjusted life year (DALYs) In Mexico (1). Nonetheless, only 20% of the population receives appropriate care and treatment for mental disorders (2). One of the crucial problems is the lack of timely detection of depression and suicidal behavior in primary care (3). Currently, no more than 30% of primary health care establishments have mental health care protocols. Furthermore, the percentage of training courses for health care professional working at primry health care level, on topics related to mental health encompasses less than 15% of the academic syllabus (4).

Previous studies have shown that knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care personnel in relation to people seeking care for mental disorders influence patients’ outcomes. For example, Saunders et al. (5) found that due to lack of knowledge and skills to manage people with suicidal behavior, the health care personnel experience anger, irritability and lack of empathy, which can negatively influence health care.

Primary care - as the first point of entrance to the health care system - plays a crucial role in early detection of mental disorders and suicidal behavior and their appropriate treatment. A potential way to enhance educational interventions for primary care physicians is using digital educational platforms. A study from the UK found that e-learning improved mental health first aid intentions, and decreased stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental health problems (6).

Effective and sustainable interventions require a systematic context analysis to prioritize and assess the feasibility of an intervention within a specific context (7). Thus, the main objective of the Danish-Mexican research collaboration is to undertake a mixed-method approach to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of general practitioners in primary care in Mexico regarding depression and suicidal behavior. This context analysis will be used to tailor a pilot online educational program to improve the capacity and quality of primary health care professionals for the identification and treatment of patients with depression and at risk of suicidal behavior in Mexico.

Outputs

The article: ’Collaborative care for depression and suicide prevention: a feasible intervention within the Mexican health system’ has been submitted to ’The Mexican Public health Journal’.

3. The symposium:“ Stregtegning collaborative work for primary mental health care - challenges and opportunities’ was advertised in different networks interested in Global Health.