This manual was developed by the WHO in 2015 as a supplement to the mhGAP Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG). This manual provides detailed instructions on how to implement evidence-based guidelines as outlined in the mhGAP-IG for the management of perinatal depression. Designed for integration into maternal and child health programs at the primary care level, the manual is aimed for use by community health workers and requires no prior knowledge or experience with maternal mental health care. The guide outlines the main principles that should be observed by community health workers in training and supervision, including: moving away from the purely medical care model, the importance of remaining community based, focusing on the mother and infant well-being rather than maternal depression and avoid medical terms such as ‘depression’ due to stigma, focus on optimal development of the infant, empowering mothers by giving practical activities and goals, encouraging family participation, and working in an integrated and holistic way. A recent study published in 2019, Using technology to scale-up training and supervision of community health workers in the psychosocial management of perinatal depression: a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial, looked adapting the Thinking Healthy Programme through the implementation of a Technology-Assisted Cascaded Training and Supervision System. Designed to train and supervise health workers from a distance using technology in post-conflict area in Pakistan, results indicated that technology-assisted training by non-specialists is equally as effective and less costly than conventional training and supervision methods.
Guidance