Mental and cognitive healthcare training targeting primary healthcare workers providing HIV services in Africa: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Mental health and neurocognitive functioning remain a concern among people living with HIV. Symptomatic neurocognitive impairment (NCI) and mental illness can cause difficulties in daily functioning, including problems adhering to treatment. However, many healthcare workers in resource-limited settings have limited knowledge about the relationship between HIV and NCI. A synthesis of available literature on mental health and NCI training provided to healthcare workers delivering HIV services in Africa, is lacking. We conducted a scoping review of published literature to identify training interventions which targeted healthcare workers providing careto people with HIV in Africa. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. One study focused on NCI, two studies mentioned HIV-associated dementia and seven studies were centred on common mental health disorders. Most studies used a multi-method training approach, with pre-and post-testing as the main evaluation technique. This review highlights the gap in training interventions addressing NCI in Africa. Although there is some commitment to building capacity for mental health and NCI assessment among healthcare workers in this setting, this review suggests that there is a need for research to develop and evaluate training interventions for healthcare workers delivering HIV services in Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• neurocognitive impairment
• HIV
• mental health
• scoping review

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the library staff at the University of Cape Town for their assistance. The doctoral candidate places on record her thanks to the South African Cognitive Association (SACNA), The National Institute for Human and Social Sciences (NIHSS) and the David and Elaine Potter Fellowship programme for their continued support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.