BACKGROUND
Technology has transformed the access to information and our learning landscape. During the COVID-19 crisis the accessible and affordable information with appropriate use of technology for healthcare became critical to train health professionals and fight with misinformation. This online based training is gaining increased attention during the last couple of decades both in developed and developing country. The mobile and internet coverage and speed of the internet has significantly improved, and this network coverage opens the opportunity to use the online based training programs for the huge grass root health care service providers. Though the health care providers receive some sort of training specifically for maternal and child health, contraceptives and other common physical illness, they hardly have any opportunity to receive the mental health training. Online based mental health training program for the community health care provider and volunteers can be good option for Bangladesh to reduce its’ wide mental health treatment gap.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to find out the potential barrier of the online based mental health trainings for the volunteers who are working in the community to promote mental health and well-being and reduce the mental health stigma in Bangladesh. We also attempted to find out the approaches those might minimize the barriers. The findings of this study will help to develop a realistic expectation and also will provide the insight to predict and prepare to mitigate the challenges of the training implementation.
METHODS
To understand the complexity of the online based training for mental health we conducted two batches of training with the students who are the mental health volunteers working in the community. We conducted Focus Group Discussions at the end of the 3 days long training of each batch and In-depth Interviews were conducted with also the trainers to find out the barriers of these online training program. The interviews were conducted in Bangla those were recorded transcribed, translated and thematically analyzed.
RESULTS
We found the most common barriers to online mental health training was the lack of physical presence, technical issues (e.g., network disturbances, device integration problems), cost of internet, electricity issues, and privacy concern. Moreover, participants reported physical strain of siting in front of desktop and laptop for the training and many of them were concerned about the about privacy breaches, accidental content sharing, and maintaining constant vigilance online.
CONCLUSIONS
The online based training opened the window to help millions of people at a time however we to be careful about the barriers those threatens the successful implementation of this programs.