Depression Education

Objective: To measure the effect of depression awareness and management training on the attitudes of rural primary health care workers.

Design: A repeated measures design in which participants acted as their own controls.

Setting: The training program occurred in 6 locations across rural South Australia.

Participants: The study enrolled primary care workers in general practitioner surgeries, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, community health centres, public hospitals, regional health services and non-government organisations.
Intervention: A six-session training workshop that was informed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines for the treatment and care of people with depression.

Main outcome measure: The 22-item Revised Depression Attitude Questionnaire comprised the main outcome measure. Participants were assessed 12 weeks before the training, again on the day of commencement of the training and after the training.

Results: Seventy-two primary health workers completed the training program in depression awareness, building therapeutic relationships, working with ambivalence, and goal setting. Between the 2 pre-training assessments mean scores showed no significant difference. There were statistically significant improvements on the overall attitudes and the subscales therapeutic optimism and professional confidence between pre-training and post-training.

Conclusion: Training rural primary health care workers in depression may improve their attitudes to working with people living with depression.