RESUMEN
Background: Management of mental health disorders has not been fully integrated into primary care despite been advocated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA). This study therefore seeks to assess the ability and preparedness of Family Physicians to recognise and treat mental health disorders in adolescents. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study of 233 randomly selected Physicians Practicing in Family Medicine Clinics in Nigeria and Ghana was conducted using a semi structured self-administered questionnaire that was developed by the researchers and validated with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .85. Data analysis was done with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences™ (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) version 22.0. Results: Respondents had a mean age of 43 ± 8 years, were mostly males 130 (55.79%), practised in Nigeria 168 (72.10%) and have been in practice for over 10 years 149 (63.95%). Majority of respondents 153 (65.67%) received at least one Medical Education sessions in mental health in the preceding 12 months of the study. Out of these, 146 (95.42%) said the sessions enhanced their knowledge of mental health, and 121 (79.08%) said the sessions enhanced their abilities and preparedness to attend to patients with mental disorders. Barriers included stigmatisation 156 (66.95%), poor facilities 136 (58.37%), non-conducive environment 135 (57.94%) and non-cooperation from patients 133 (57.08%). Conclusion: This study showed that a lot of family physicians in Ghana and Nigeria are able and prepared to manage adolescent mental health disorders. They however cited stigmatisation, poor facilities and non-conducive environment as barriers to management of adolescent mental health disorders in primary care. Considering the severity of the disorder, there is a need to increase the training of Family Physicians in the management of adolescent mental health.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Mental health disorders among adolescents is on the rise globally. Patients seldom present to mental health physicians, for fear of stigmatization, and due to the dearth of mental health physicians. They are mostly picked during consultations with Family Physicians. This study seeks to identify the common mental health disorders seen by family Physicians in Family Medicine Clinics in Nigeria and Ghana. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study involving 302 Physicians practicing in Family Medicine Clinics in Nigeria and Ghana, who were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected using self-administered semi-structured questionnaire, and were entered into excel spreadsheet before analysing with IBM-SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages was used to describe variables. RESULTS: Of the 302 Physicians recruited for the study, only 233 completed the study, in which 168 (72.1%) practiced in Nigeria and 65 (27.9%) in Ghana. They were mostly in urban communities (77.3%) and tertiary health facilities (65.2%). Over 90% of Family Medicine practitioners attended to adolescents with mental health issues with over 70% of them seeing at least 2 adolescents with mental health issues every year. The burden of mental health disorder was 16% and the common mental health disorders seen were depression (59.2%), Bipolar Affective Disorder (55.8%), Epilepsy (51.9%) and Substance Abuse Disorder (44.2%). CONCLUSION: Family Physicians in Nigeria and Ghana attend to a good number of adolescents with mental health disorders in their clinics. There is the need for Family Physicians to have specialized training and retraining to be able to recognize and treat adolescent mental health disorders. This will help to reduce stigmatization and improve the management of the disease thus, reducing the burden.