Diseño e implementación de un Programa de Alfabetización en Salud Mental dirigido a líderes, mentores y servidores de una iglesia cristiana de Santa Marta, Colombia
Thesis
Mental Health Literacy can be understood as a learning process that is materialized through educational interventions to understand mental disorders and their treatments, allowing their recognition, management, or prevention. As one of its components, first-aid skills are mentioned to support people who are experiencing a psychological crisis or who are developing mental disorders. Due to the stigma associated with mental health professionals, these people are likely to seek help from religious leaders before turning to these professionals. However, one of the problems in doing so is that these leaders may not have sufficient knowledge to adequately address certain crisis situations, or to detect signs and symptoms that should also be treated clinically/therapeutically. For this reason, the objective of this work was to design and implement a Mental Health Literacy Program for leaders, mentors, and servant members of a Christian church in the city of Santa Marta, Colombia. This was done through the design and application of an initial survey and a theoretical-practical training on Psychological First Aid. 30 people answered the initial survey; 40 people entered the training phase of the Program, of which 27 people completed at least 4 of the 6 hours of training. To evaluate the Program, a satisfaction questionnaire, a Post-Test, and a role-playing activity were designed. 100% of the people who filled out the satisfaction questionnaire responded that they were satisfied with the training, that the content was interesting and pertinent, and that it provided them with practical and useful intervention skills for their role. 100% of those who filled out the Post-Test demonstrated theoretical understanding of the training. The role-playing activity show that the participants in the role of helper were able to apply 3 or more intervention strategies of Psychological First Aid, presented attitudes of leadership, self-control, empathy, or others mentioned in the training, followed ethical recommendations, and considered that it was safe to intervene in the hypothetical situation. In the role of a person in psychological crisis, the participants interpreted 3 or more manifestations of a psychological crisis. The results revealed that the training had a positive impact on the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and practical skills to identify and intervene people in psychological crisis, through Psychological First Aid.
