An evaluation of the curriculum of a graduate programme in Clinical Psychology.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to evaluate the Masters Degree programme in Clinical Psychology, offered by the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Graduate Study, Mahidol University. Methods: CIPP Model was used to evaluate the programme. The sample consisted of 44 lecturers, 36 current students, 56 graduates and employers of 56 graduates. Data was collected using questionnaires and by an informal interview. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Results: The research findings in the context evaluation indicated that the curriculum objectives were clearly stated, practice oriented and corresponded to social needs. The curriculum structure was well designed. The instructional and evaluation activities corresponded to the curriculum objectives. The input evaluation showed that the students who attended the programme found the selection criteria appropriate. The students’ readiness was found to be high. The results show that the working committee and lecturers could conduct the course successfully. The educational resources were available to serve the teaching and learning process. However, some of the resources were not adequate. With regard to the process evaluation, the operation instruction and evaluation process were very good. Product evaluation suggests that graduates have achieved the general and specific competencies as mentioned in the programme objectives.

The development of the Pictorial Thai Quality of Life.

BACKGROUND: "Quality of life" has become a main focus of interest in medicine. The Pictorial Thai Quality of Life (PTQL) was developed in order to measure the Thai mental illness both in a clinical setting and community. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to develop the Pictorial Thai Quality of Life (PTQL), having adequate and sufficient construct validity, discriminant power, concurrent validity, and reliability. MATERIAL AND METHOD: To develop the Pictorial Thai Quality of Life Test, two samples groups were used in the present study: (1) pilot study samples: 30 samples and (2) survey samples were 672 samples consisting of normal, and psychiatric patients. The developing tests items were collected from a review of the literature in which all the items were based on the WHO definition of Quality of Life. Then, experts judgment by the Delphi technique was used in the first stage. After that a pilot study was used to evaluate the testing administration, and wording of the tests items. The final stage was collected data from the survey samples. RESULTS: The results of the present study showed that the final test was composed 25 items. The construct validity of this test consists of six domains: Physical, Cognitive, Affective, Social Function, Economic and Self-Esteem. All the PTQL items have sufficient discriminant power It was found to be statistically significant different at the. 001 level between those people with mental disorders and normal people. There was a high level of concurrent validity association with WHOQOL-BREF, Pearson correlation coefficient and Area under ROC curve were 0.92 and 0.97 respectively. The reliability coefficients for the Alpha coefficients of the PTQL total test was 0.88. The values of the six scales were from 0.81 to 0:91. CONCLUSIONS: The present study was directed at developing an effective psychometric properties pictorial quality of life questionnaire. The result will be a more direct and meaningful application of an instrument to detect the mental health illness poor quality of life in Thai communities.

The development of the Thai Psychiatric Satisfaction Scale.

BACKGROUND: Satisfaction with mental services is an important quality and outcome variable. The Thai Psychiatric Satisfaction Scale (TPSS) is developed in order to measure service satisfaction. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to develop the Thai Psychiatric Satisfaction Scale (TPSS), having adequate and sufficient validity and reliability. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A sample of people with mental illness in the Department of Psychiatry, Siriraj Hospital was assessed. The TPSS was administered. Then factor analysis, internal consistency and test-retest reliability were analized. RESULTS: The Thai Psychiatric Satisfaction Scale (TPSS) contains seven domains: Professionals' Skills and Behavior, Information, Access, Efficacy, Type of Intervention, Relative's Involvement, and Environment and Setting. The infinity coefficient for the TPSS was 0.97 (95% CI 0.94-0.97) and ranged from 0.70 (95% CI 0.68-0.76) to 0.96 (95% CI 0.94-0.97). Test-retest for TPSS was 0.82. (95% CI 0.78-0.85). CONCLUSION: This TPSS is a validated and reliable multi-dimensional scale which measures the satisfaction of patients with mental health services for routine clinical practice in mental health service.

Prevalence and incidence of depression in the Thai elderly.

The purposes of this study were to study the prevalence and incidence of depression in elderly Thais. A field survey study was implemented. The sample consisted of 1,713 elderly people in 35 communities from 4 districts surrounding Siriraj Hospital Bangkok Noi, Bangkok Yai, Taling Chun and Bang Plud. These areas are the peripheral part of Bangkok and most of them have extended family. The Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS) and the Thai Mini Mental State Examination (TMSE) were used as screening tests, for data collection. The prevalence of depression was 12.78 per cent, of which 8.23 per cent had only depressive symptomatology (male 5.43%, female 9.63%) while 4.55 per cent had both depression and cognitive impairment (male 2.8%, female 5.54%). The point incidence (one year) of depression was 7.27 (male 1.58%, female 5.68%). The major contributing factors in depression were financial, poor family relationships and physical illness. The prevention and management of these factors may bring about a better quality of life for the elderly in Thailand.

Research on development of the manual for self detection of depression in the Thai elderly.

The purposes of this study were to develop an effective manual for the early self detection of depression in the Thai elderly, to detect the comorbidity of depression (pattern of drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal idea) and to ascertain the quality of life. A quasi experimental field research methodology (Randomized Control Group Pretest-Posttest Design) was implemented. The sample consisted of 1,390 elderly people in 35 communities from 4 districts surrounding Siriraj Hospital-Bangkok Noi, Bangkok Yai, Taling Chan and Bang Phlat. These areas are the peripheral parts of Bangkok and most of them have extended families. The result showed that: 1. The internal consistency reliability of the nine criteria of the manual for the self detection of depression in the Thai elderly ranged from 0.84 to 0.94. The validity tested by epidemiological methods, disclosed that the sensitivity was 82.14 per cent and the specificity was 97.56 per cent. 2. There was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of depression between the study and the control group (p<0.000); self referred cases = 86.7 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively. The study group was able to detect depression in 42 days, while the control group did so in 122 days. In addition, in the associated comorbidity, there were differences in the patterns of drug and alcohol abuse, suicidal ideas and quality of life after the experiment. These findings showed a decreasing pattern of self medication for depression, and suicidal ideas and an improvement in the quality of life in the study group.