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Table 3 Summary of Themes from Interviews with Trained Primary Care Providers at 5-months post-training (N = 28)

From: Mechanisms of action for stigma reduction among primary care providers following social contact with service users and aspirational figures in Nepal: an explanatory qualitative design

 

Overall findings

Differences by training arm1

Societal context of stigma

• People with MI laughed at, teased in society

• People don’t talk about MI because of stigma

• Seek care for MI far away where don’t know people

 

Reported attitudes and behaviors before training

• Used stigmatizing language (e.g., “mad”)

• Avoided, feared MH patients

• Lacked knowledge, experience, confidence with MH

• Lack of or negative prior encounters with MH patients

• TAU providers more often reported having considered MH patients violent

• RESHAPE providers more often reported thinking MI was not treatable

Attitude changes after training

• Anyone can have MI; they are “like us”

• MI is treatable; patients can return to “normal”

• Should treat patients with care, empathy, respect

• As in the overall quantitative sample, RESHAPE interview participants more likely to experience large decrease in stigmatizing attitudes

• RESHAPE providers referred to recovery narratives in describing changed understanding

Willingness to treat after training

• Motivation, confidence, enthusiasm to treat MI

• Confidence attributed to increased knowledge, skills

• Motivation attributed to greater understanding of causation of MI

• Responsibility, desire to help return to “normal”

• RESHAPE providers more likely to express willingness to treat

• RESHAPE providers more often described specific skills learned (e.g., how to interact, promote safety, and encourage openness)

Patient encounters during and after training

• Treatment provision/success → greater patient openness → greater provider confidence and openness → treatment provision/success (positive feedback loop)

• RESHAPE providers described positive impact of personal testimony from service users, caregivers, and aspirational figures (current MH providers)

Providers’ experience of being stigmatized after training

• All except 1 reported not having experienced stigma

• Mixed expectations regarding stigma if they were to advertise MH services

 
  1. 1. Because of the purposive sub-samples used, some patterned differences were noted between TAU and RESHAPE participants; these differences between training arms are descriptive and not statistically tested or inferential
  2. MH mental health, MI mental illness, RESHAPE REducing Stigma among HealthcAre Providers, TAU training-as-usual