Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Ministry of Health, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Nov 20;21(1):585. doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03598-0.
Family and friends can play a key role in supporting a person with depression to seek professional help. However, they may lack the knowledge to do so. English-language guidelines for high-income countries have been developed to assist with this. The aim of this study was to adapt the English mental health first aid guidelines for helping a person with depression to the Sri Lankan context.
A Delphi expert consensus study involving mental health professionals and people with lived experience (either their own or as carers) was conducted. Participants were recruited from inpatient, outpatient and community care settings. The English-language questionnaire was translated into Sinhala and participants were asked to rate the importance of each item for inclusion in the guidelines for Sri Lanka.
Data were collected over two survey rounds. A total of 115 panellists (23% male) consisting of 92 mental health professionals and 23 consumers and carers completed the Round 1 questionnaire. A total of 165 items were included in the final guidelines, with 156 adopted from the guidelines for English-speaking countries and 9 generated from the comments of panellists.
The adapted guidelines were similar to the English-language guidelines. However, new items reflecting culturally relevant approaches to autonomy-granting, communication and culture-specific manifestations of depression were reflected in the adapted version. Further research should explore the use of the adapted guidelines, including their incorporation into Mental Health First Aid Training.
家人和朋友可以在支持患有抑郁症的人寻求专业帮助方面发挥关键作用。然而，他们可能缺乏这样做的知识。已经为高收入国家制定了英语语言的指南，以帮助他们做到这一点。本研究的目的是将英语心理健康急救指南改编为适合斯里兰卡国情的帮助抑郁症患者的指南。
进行了一项涉及心理健康专业人员和有过生活经历（自己或作为照顾者）的德尔菲专家共识研究。参与者是从住院、门诊和社区护理环境中招募的。英语问卷被翻译成僧伽罗语，参与者被要求对纳入斯里兰卡指南的每个项目的重要性进行评分。
数据在两轮调查中收集。共有 115 名小组成员（23%为男性）完成了第一轮问卷，其中 92 名为心理健康专业人员，23 名为消费者和照顾者。最终指南共包括 165 项，其中 156 项来自英语国家的指南，9 项来自小组成员的意见。
改编后的指南与英语语言指南相似。然而，在改编版本中反映了文化上相关的自主权授予方法、沟通以及特定文化的抑郁表现等新内容。进一步的研究应该探索使用改编后的指南，包括将其纳入心理健康急救培训。
