The implementation and evaluation of a mhealth intervention to address secondary traumatic stress among frontline mental health care providers in South Africa

Providing mental health care to trauma survivors may lead to secondary traumatic stress (sts) amongst mental health care service providers (mhcps) and existing interventions for sts are labour intensive and have limited accessibility. in contrast, mobile health (mhealth) interventions offer an alternative means of mental health care. this study implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of an international smartphone application (i.e., covid coach) that was designed to support health care providers’ mental health during the covid-19 pandemic. participants included mhcps working with traumatised populations in south africa. the study used a triangulation design comprising of three interrelated phases. phase one investigated the prevalence of sts and its associated risk and protective factors. findings from phase one showed that more than a quarter of the sample (33%) reported moderate levels of sts and that increased exposure to vicarious trauma and the female gender were associated with higher levels of sts. in addition, increased levels of sts and greater support from family were associated with increased post-traumatic growth (ptg). phase two explored the lived experience of trauma work and salient themes that emerged included shattered pre-existing assumptions and transformative experiences that were reminiscent of vicarious ptg. phase three comprised a randomised controlled trial of the covid coach mobile application and results revealed that the application did not produce significant shifts in the mental health outcomes of the intervention groups. thus, despite the promising potential of digital mental health interventions to transform mental health care in developing countries, robust scientific evidence to substantiate the efficacy of these interventions is still notably absent and this study makes an important contribution to the research evidence base in this area

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of the Western Cape

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Nespola, Angelic

• Burnout
• Compassion Satisfaction
• Mhcps
• Mhealth
• Mobile Phone Application

Licence

• https://uwcscholar.uwc.ac.za/bitstreams/d677b48b-db39-47ce-8f51-43fe49e9428e/download