Iheanacho T, Nduanya UC, Slinkard S, et al.
Mental health manpower shortages in low- and middle-income countries limit access to care, prompting interest in training community members, including clergy, to help deliver mental health interventions. This study examined the Healthy Beginning Initiative's church-based platform, which trains community advisors for mental health screening, through focus groups with 13 Catholic clergy and surveys of women with depression in Nigeria exploring clergy willingness to deliver therapy and patients' treatment preferences. Clergy valued their role, understood the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model of mental disorders, and expressed willingness to be trained, while surveyed women most often preferred therapy from trained clergy (92.9%), followed by a psychiatrist (89.3%) and psychologist (85.7%). The findings support a clergy-focused, faith-informed adaptation of therapy for common mental disorders anchored in community churches to expand access to treatment.
View Full Paper on Global Mental Health