ความรอบรู้ทางสุขภาพจิตและภาวะกดดันด้านจิตใจในอาสาสมัครสาธารณสุขประจำหมู่บ้าน

Abstract

Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) are valuable human resources for the development of public health work in the community. Good mental health is important for VHVs and is related to two key factors: having a low level of psychological distress and having good mental health literacy. This will encourage their ability to take care of their mental health, look for mental health problems in both themselves and others, and pass the information on to public health personnel for preventing mental health problems of people in the community. This correlational descriptive study aimed to study mental health literacy and psychological distress and to examine the relationship between mental health literacy and psychological distress among VHVs. The sample consisted of male and female VHVs, aged 18 years and over, residing in the Northeast of Thailand and four health zones consisting of health zones 7-10 with 384 participants selected based on the predetermined inclusion criteria. The data collection tools included 1) a General Information Questionnaire for VHVs, 2) a Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire for VHVs, and 3) the Psychological Distress Scales for VHVs. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s coefficient were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that: 1. The village health volunteers had overall mental health literacy scores at high, moderate, and low levels, representing 45.83%, 41.67%, and 7.55%, respectively. When considering each aspect, it was found that there were two aspects for which most of the samples had a high average score of mental health literacy: aspect 3 (knowledge and beliefs about self-care methods), representing 45.83%, and aspect 5 (knowledge and competency of mental health and psychiatric information search methods), representing 41.15%. The sample group had mean scores of mental health literacy at a moderate level for aspect 2 (knowledge and beliefs about risk factors and causes of psychiatric illness), representing 51.04%. 2. The village health volunteers had psychological distress scores at the low, medium, high, and highest levels representing 41.15%, 40.88%, 13.54%, and 4.43%, respectively. 3. Mental health literacy had a low negative correlation with psychological distress among village health volunteers, at the statistical significance of .05 (r = -.145). The results of this research can be used as fundamental information for healthcare professionals to develop village health volunteers' potential in their responsible areas, in terms of developing mental health literacy and training for psychological distress management among village health volunteers. This will encourage them to be able to take care of themselves and people with mental health and psychiatric problems in the community.