Universal mental health training for frontline professionals: evaluation of pilot trial in Ukraine

Background
Increasing accessibility of mental health services and expanding universal health coverage is possible worldwide by using a task-shifting approach and delegating elements of mental health support to trained non-mental health service providers. The Universal Mental Health Training (UMHT), dedicated to this aim, was developed and piloted in Ukraine. The UMHT is a specialised program for training frontline professionals on high-quality and evidence-based responses to the mental health needs of the population they serve.

Methods
The controlled pilot trial of UMHTs’ efficacy was conducted with 307 frontline professionals divided into 24 training groups. The control group included 211 persons with the same occupation background who participated in training later (waiting list). All the groups took part in eight-hour training which includes one introductory module that introduces the mental health topic alongside a five-step model, two disorders-focused modules with the steps adjusted to work with specific disorders and the final module that considers possible difficulties and ways of their solving. Three efficacy measurements were used in the outcome assessment: Readiness to interact with people with mental health issues at work, mental health awareness and mental health proficiency.

Results
Analysis of the outcome data revealed middle-level effect size related to the knowledge of mental health conditions, mental health awareness, and increasing the readiness to interact with people with mental health issues at work in first-line professionals that underwent the UMHT.

Conclusions
High-level utilisation of the UMHT at work by trained professionals confirms our hypothesis on the efficacy and feasibility of the developed intervention. Results obtained favour the continuation of the development of the UMHT and future implementation research in this field in Ukraine and potentially in other low- and middle-income countries.