Background Training lay people to deliver mental health interventions in the community can be an effective strategy to mitigate mental health manpower shortages in low- and middle-income countries. The healthy beginning initiative (HBI) is a congregation-based platform that uses this approach to train church-based lay health advisors to conduct mental health screening in community churches and link people to care. This paper explores the potential for a clergy-delivered therapy for mental disorders on the HBI platform and identifies the treatment preferences of women diagnosed with depression. Methods We conducted focus group discussion and free-listing exercise with 13 catholic clergy in churches that participated in HBI in Enugu, Nigeria. These exercises, guided by the positive, existential, or negative (PEN-3) cultural model, explored their role in HBI, their beliefs about mental disorders, and their willingness to be trained to deliver therapy for mental disorders. We surveyed women diagnosed with depression in the same environment to understand their health-seeking behavior and treatment preferences. The development of the survey was guided by the health belief model. Results The clergy valued their role in HBI, expressed understanding of the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model of mental disorders, and were willing to be trained to provide therapy for depression. Majority of the women surveyed preferred to receive therapy from trained clergy (92.9%), followed by a psychiatrist (89.3%), and psychologist (85.7%). Conclusion These findings support a potential clergy-focused, faith-informed adaptation of therapy for common mental disorders anchored in community churches to increase access to treatment in a resource-limited setting.

中文翻译：

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利用教会平台进行心理健康干预：探索神职人员的作用和抑郁症女性的治疗偏好


背景 培训非专业人士在社区提供心理健康干预措施可能是缓解低收入和中等收入国家心理健康人力短缺的有效策略。健康开始倡议 (HBI) 是一个以会众为基础的平台，利用这种方法培训教会的非专业健康顾问，在社区教堂进行心理健康筛查，并将人们与护理联系起来。本文探讨了 HBI 平台上神职人员提供的精神障碍治疗的潜力，并确定了被诊断患有抑郁症的女性的治疗偏好。方法 我们对尼日利亚埃努古参加 HBI 的教堂中的 13 名天主教神职人员进行了焦点小组讨论和自由列出练习。这些练习以积极、存在或消极 (PEN-3) 文化模式为指导，探讨了他们在 HBI 中的作用、他们对精神障碍的信念以及他们接受培训以提供精神障碍治疗的意愿。我们对同一环境中被诊断患有抑郁症的女性进行了调查，以了解她们的健康寻求行为和治疗偏好。该调查的开展以健康信念模型为指导。结果 神职人员重视他们在 HBI 中的作用，表达了对精神障碍的生物-心理-社会-精神模型的理解，并愿意接受培训以提供抑郁症治疗。大多数接受调查的女性更愿意接受训练有素的神职人员的治疗（92.9%），其次是精神科医生（89.3%）和心理学家（85.7%）。结论 这些发现支持对以神职人员为中心、以信仰为基础的常见精神障碍治疗的潜在调整，以社区教会为基础，以增加在资源有限的环境中获得治疗的机会。