What is it about?
Community health workers are often the first people community members turn to when they experience mental health problems. However, many of these workers receive little or no formal training in mental health, and there are very few tools available to assess what they actually know, believe, or misunderstand about mental health.
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Why is it important?
In this study, we developed and tested a new questionnaire called the Mental Health Literacy Assessment Scale (MHLAS) to measure mental health literacy. The results showed that the scale is reliable, valid, and easy to use, making it suitable for research and practical use in community and primary healthcare settings.
Perspectives
The MHLAS can be used by researchers, policymakers, and program implementers to identify knowledge gaps, guide training programs, evaluate mental health interventions, and strengthen community-based mental health services. Ultimately, improving mental health literacy among frontline health workers can lead to earlier identification of mental health problems and better access to care at the community level. We believe that improving mental health literacy at the community level is a key step toward building more accessible, compassionate, and effective mental health services.
Shishir Paudel
Pokhara University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Development and Validation of Mental Health Literacy Assessment Scale among Community Health Workers and Volunteers in Nepal, December 2024, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4851154/v1.
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