The change in attitude and knowledge of health care personnel and general population following trainings provided during integration of mental health in Primary Health Care in Iran: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundMental health has been integrated in the primary health care program in small cities and villages of Iran in a national level since the late 1980s. We performed a systematic review of literature to investigate the effect of education on change in attitude and knowledge of mental health care providers and the population covered in the program during the recent two decades in Iran.MethodsElectronic bibliographic databases including Pubmed, PsycINFO and EMBase as well as the main Iranian databases (Scientific Information Database, IranMedex, IranPsych, and IranDoc) were searched. Additionally, hand searching, personal contacts and tracking of reference lists were performed. All of the studies which compared the attitude and knowledge of the related population before and after an educational intervention were recruited.ResultsSix articles met the inclusion criteria and entered the review. All of these studies showed an improvement in the attitude and knowledge of the studied population. Although the studies were different in many respects, a meta-analysis on the two more similar studies showed a significant effect of training on long term improvement of the knowledge and attitude of the population.ConclusionA short term training improved knowledge and attitude of the population and health personnel immediately after the intervention. There is also evidence for a long term change in the attitude and knowledge of general population after short term training.

How Mental Illness is Perceived by Iranian Medical Students: A Preliminary Study

“…However, there is some evidence regarding knowledge and attitude of public and health care provider toward mental health in Iran [22], to best our knowledge there is paucity about Iranian medical students' attitude toward “mental illness” as a general concept not a specific disorder. Therefore, we designed the present study as a preliminary one to assess medical students' attitudes toward mental illness following a 4-week psychiatry clerkship at teaching hospitals, affiliated in three schools of medicine in Tehran, Capital of Iran.…”

Evidence for effective interventions to reduce mental health-related stigma and discrimination in the medium and long term: Systematic review

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Strategies to reduce the stigma toward people with mental disorders in Iran: stakeholders’ perspectives

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