DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH PEER COUNSELLING SERVICES FOR STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

Abstract

Background: There is a significant burden of mental health disorders among college/university students, many of which are untreated. The treatment gap, with respect to the management of mental health problems in students remains a pervasive and on-going problem in the delivery of mental health care. This is largely a direct result of an acute shortage of mental health professionals. Available evidence shows that the most effective set of people to provide alternatives of such services to students are their fellow students or peers, referred to as peer counsellors. This study was aimed at developing and providing peer counselling services for students of the University of Ibadan. Methodology: Twenty prospective volunteer mental health peer counsellors were recruited through poster advertisements, had personality tests using the modified Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) which assessed for extraversion (sociability) and neuroticism (emotionality), focus group discussions, and pre-intervention assessments. They subsequently had a two-day training on the identification of common mental health issues, peer counselling and communication skills, followed by a post-intervention assessment. The trained peer counsellors then commenced peer counselling activities. The focus group discussion recording was transcribed and analysed by themes; the quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as means, percentages, proportions and range. Chi-square and student t-tests were used to compare proportions and means respectively at 5% level of significance. Results: A total of twenty (20) participants took part in the study. The mean age of the volunteer peer counsellors was 20.2 (±2.6) years. There were 9 (45.0%) male and 11 (55.0%) female volunteers. The mean extraversion score was 9.9 (±3.1) and the mean neuroticism score was 9.6 (±4.2). The scores from both domains were used to categorize the prospective peer counsellors into the four temperaments, and thirteen (65.0%) of the volunteers were found to possess phlegmatic temperaments, 4 (20.0%) had sanguine, 2 (10.0%) had melancholic while 1 (5.0%) had choleric temperaments. The focus group revealed some terms which students use to refer to mental illness, were able to identify some symptoms of mental illness and described some perceived roles of family, peers and friends in the cause and treatment of mental illness. They also mentioned the ability to identify symptoms of particular illnesses, how to assess and handle some cases, approach persons with mental illness, listening and understanding skills, be patient and focused as training needs. The mean pretest score was 24.0 (±2.3) while the mean posttest score was 27.5 (±1.2). Paired t-test analysis of the pre and post-intervention scores showed a significant improvement in knowledge generally (p<0.05). In addition, there was a significant change in knowledge in both the male and female participants (p = 0.004 and p =0.00 respectively), in only the 16-20 year old group of participants (p = 0.00), and in participants according to level of study (p = 0.02, p= 0.01and p=0.04 for 200, 300 and 400 level respectively). Some of the trained mental health peer counsellors have been involved more in raising awareness about mental illness by means of information and educational stickers. Three clients have been attended to and one client has been referred to the clinic. Conclusion: The mental health peer counselling training programme is effective in increasing the knowledge base of volunteer mental health peer counsellors.