RESUMO
Background: Suicide is a global health problem and the second leading cause of death in 15-29 years of age. There were reports of nursing students committing suicide in Gujarat. As nursing teachers are the important gatekeepers, it was essential to study their attitude towards suicide prevention. Methodology: A questionaire containing 20 statements, derived from the Attitude towards suicide prevention scale and from the Suicide opinion questionnaire, to be marked as ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ or ‘uncertain’ was administered to 80 nursing teachers from Gujarat. This was followed by an interactive session on suicide prevention. Results: Most of the nursing teachers felt that suicide prevention was their responsibility, that a large proportion of suicides was preventable, most suicides were impulsive and that suicide in the young was particularly puzzling. However, nearly 80 % felt that those who are serious about committing suicide usually don’t tell anyone. Around one-fifth felt there was no way of knowing who was going to commit suicide and they were not comfortable in assessing suicide risk. Conclusion: The overall attitude of the nursing teachers towards suicide prevention was positive. However more educational and skill-based training programmes are required to better equip the nursing teachers for suicide prevention.
RESUMO
Background & Objective: Mental health needs of a society are ideally met by integration in primary care. Under the District Mental Health programme, Surat is the nodal centre for Dang, a tribal region. In order to make medical care available to the patients in need, it was vital to train the peripheral health workers of the region. The aim was to provide mental health education to the peripheral health workers of Dang and assess its impact on their knowledge and attitude regarding mental health issues. Methodology: 150 peripheral health workers were posted in the Department of Psychiatry in batches of 20-30 each for a 7-day, extensive, in-house training. The improvement in knowledge and attitude was assessed by a pre-post semi-structured questionnaire and structured feedback. Results: The training resulted in a significant improvement in scores related to clarification of myths. The knowledge and attitude related to mental health issues improved significantly and the participants reported that they were sensitized by the training and would identify and refer patients to the visiting psychiatrist. Conclusion: The training in mental health could bring about improvement in the knowledge and attitude of the peripheral health workers. However, to what extent does this change reflect in actual practice, needs to be ascertained.