Quantitative components of a mental health task sharing study focused on clinical associates in South Africa

The study aimed to develop a mental health task sharing model focussed on clinical associates in South Africa. It consisted of three phases:

1. Reviewing the mental health content of clinical associate undergraduate curricula through in-depth interviews and a review of records
2. Assessing the readiness for clinical associate task sharing in mental health through a KAP survey of clinical associates and focus group interviews with health managers, nurses and medical doctors
3. Identifying the key elements of the task sharing model utilising a Delphi panel consisting of family physicians and psychiatrists

The data uploaded here is from the quantitative components of the study viz. KAP survey of clinical associates and the three rounds of the Delphi survey.

The KAP survey of clinical associates utilised an online (Qualtrics) questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of sections on the participants' demographic characteristics, their undergraduate training, knowledge of mental illness, confidence performing mental health-related tasks, attitudes towards mental illness, their current involvement in mental health service provision, and their interest in mental health training and service provision. The questionnaire included the 16-item Mental Illness Clinicians' Attitudes version 4 scale (Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London). The questionnaire was preceded by five questions to confirm if the potential participants met the inclusion criteria for the study and those who met the inclusion criteria needed to provide informed consent to participate.

The Delphi survey involved a panel consisting of family physicians and psychiatrists and took place over three rounds using online (Qualtrics) questionnaires. The first round questionnaire consisted of questions related to the levels of care at which mental health training of clinical associates should occur, the mental illnesses they should be able to recognise and manage, the health professionals and the teaching modalities that should be utilised in training, and the levels of care at which mental health task sharing should occur and the mental health tasks that could be performed. These questions were asked for both undergraduate training and for an hypothetical postgraduate qualification in mental health for clinical associates. The questionnaire was updated after each round with items on which consensus was reached being removed from the questionnaire for the subsequent rounds. In the second and third rounds, participants were provided with the median panel response and their own response from the previous round.