Ethiopian Community Health Workers' Beliefs and Attitudes towards Children with Autism: Impact of a Brief Training Intervention

Autor/inn/en	Tilahun, Dejene; Fekadu, Abebaw; Tekola, Bethlehem; Araya, Mesfin; Roth, Ilona; Davey, Basiro; Hanlon, Charlotte; Hoekstra, Rosa A.
Titel	Ethiopian Community Health Workers' Beliefs and Attitudes towards Children with Autism: Impact of a Brief Training Intervention
Quelle	In: Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 23 (2019) 1, S.39-49 (11 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1362-3613
DOI	10.1177/1362361317730298
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Autism; Access to Health Care; Training; Extension Agents; Mental Health; Developmental Disabilities; Beliefs; Interpersonal Relationship; Program Effectiveness; Expectation; Rural Areas; Social Bias; Community Health Services; Health Personnel; Attitude Change; Negative Attitudes; Ethiopia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Autismus; Ausbildung; Psychohygiene; Entwicklungsstörung; Belief; Glaube; Interpersonal relation; Interpersonal relations; Interpersonelle Beziehung; Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung; Expectancy; Erwartung; Rural area; Ländlicher Raum; Medizinisches Personal; Attitudinal change; Einstellungsänderung; Negative Fixierung; Äthiopien
Abstract	There is a severe shortage of services for children with autism in Ethiopia; access to services is further impeded by negative beliefs and stigmatising attitudes towards affected children and their families. To increase access to services, care provision is decentralised through task-shifted care by community health extension workers. This study aimed to examine the impact of a brief training (Health Education and Training; HEAT) for Ethiopian rural health extension workers and comprised three groups: (1) health extension workers who completed a basic mental health training module (HEAT group, N = 104); (2) health extension workers who received enhanced training, comprising basic HEAT as well as video-based training on developmental disorders and a mental health pocket guide (HEAT+ group, N = 97); and (3) health extension workers untrained in mental health (N = 108). All participants completed a questionnaire assessing beliefs and social distance towards children with autism. Both the HEAT and HEAT+ group showed fewer negative beliefs and decreased social distance towards children with autism compared to the untrained health extension worker group, with the HEAT+ group outperforming the HEAT group. However, HEAT+ trained health extension workers were less likely to have positive expectations about children with autism than untrained health extension workers. These findings have relevance for task-sharing and scale up of autism services in low-resource settings worldwide. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01