Hairdressers and well-being: Local services provision and mental health first response
中文摘要
全球心理健康领域的资金投入不足。在低收入环境中，创新性的非专业人员解决方案可能构成正规医疗体系的替代选择。我们评估了一个创新项目，该项目培训理发师，使其能够作为心理健康问题表现的一线应对者。共有73名理发师接受了积极倾听培训。我们发现一些证据表明，该培训改善了理发师与顾客之间的互动，但并未对顾客的心理健康产生影响。我们还发现，培训使理发师自身的心理健康结果恶化，并推测这与污名化程度降低和自我评估能力提高有关，这表明顾客和理发师均更新了其对心理健康的认知。这些结果表明，在存在污名化且心理健康意识薄弱的环境中，仅靠培训可能不足以在可测量的程度上改善心理健康结果；未来的类似干预或可考虑将培训与补贴性医疗服务获取相结合，至少在初始阶段如此。
Abstract
Mental health is globally underfunded. In low-income settings, innovative and layman solutions may constitute alternatives to formal medical systems. We evaluate an innovative program training hairdressers to act as first responders to manifestations of mental health issues. 73 hairdressers were trained in active listening. We find some evidence that the training improved hairdresser-customer interactions, but found no effect on the mental health of customers. We also found that training worsened mental health outcomes for hairdressers, and speculate that this has to do with reduced stigma and improved self-evaluative capacities, showing that both customers and hairdressers updated their beliefs about mental health. These results suggest that training alone in a context with stigma and poor mental health awareness may not be enough to measurably improve mental health outcomes, and future similar interventions may want to consider combining training with subsidized access to care, at least in an initial phase.