Mental health and disability research priorities and capacity needs in Ghana: findings from a rapid review and research priority ranking survey

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flowchart of mental health and disability research priority ranking process.

Figure 2. Mental health and disability research publications as a proportion of total health-related publications over a 10-year period.

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of study participants in first and second-stage surveys.

Variable	Category	Participants		P-value
		Stage 1 survey [N = 68 (%)]	Stage 2 survey [N = 44 (%)]
Age group	25–34 35-44 45–54 55-64	27 (39.7) 28 (41.2) 9 (13.2) 4 (5.9)	12 (30.0) 16 (40.0) 8 (20.0) 4 (10.0)	0.571
Sex	Male Female	42 (61.8) 26 (38.2)	31 (77.5) 9 (22.5)	0.824
Highest Education Achieved	Membership in Psychiatry Bachelor’s degree Diploma MD Masters PhD	1 (1.5) 12 (17.6) 29 (42.6) 1 (1.5) 21 (30.9) 4 (5.9)	1 (2.5) 7(17.5) 11 (27.5) 0 (0) 17 (42.5) 4 (10.0)	0.293
Expert pools	Academic/Research Clinician/Psychiatrist/Psychologist Donors/Multilaterals/Unilaterals NGOs/CSOs Policy	5 (7.4) 42 (61.7) 5 (7.4) 13 (19.1) 3 (4.4)	5 (12.5) 19 (47.5) 4 (10.0) 10 (25.0) 2 (5.0)	0.004

Table 2. Top 10 priority research questions and their thematic areas for Ghana.

		Individual CNRI criteria score (0–40)					Time frame
Thematic area (Research Question/s)	% total score (275)/mean score	Ethical	Efficacy	aDeliv	Burden	Equity	Immediate to short-term n (%)	Medium to long-term n (%)
Health systems, policy and mental health and disability legislation studies in order to unpack human-rights issues and their impact on mental health and disability; and integrate mental health in primary health care (How can we scale up mental health and disability services in Ghana?)	171 (62.2%)/4.28	35	35	31	34	36	24(60)	16(40)
Design and evaluation of intervention studies, including economic evaluation (What are the ways of improving working conditions for mental health professionals in Ghana?; What livelihoods and psychosocial support activities are most appropriate and effective for people with disabilities?; What interventions and educational programmes will aid in improving mental health literacy to reduce stigma and protecting the rights of people living with mental illness and disabilities?)	168 (61.1%)/4.20	36	35	34	32	31	28(70)	12(30)
	168 (61.1%)/4.20	35	33	34	33	33	29(72.5)	11(27.5)
	166 (60.4%)/4.15	34	31	34	33	34	20(51.3)	19(48.7)
Epidemiological studies on incidence and prevalence of mental health conditions and to identify how mental health conditions emerge, what makes people more susceptible or resilient than others, consequences (How is mental health stigma impacting on the economic livelihoods of persons with psychosocial disabilities?)	164 (59.6%)/4.10	35	33	29	34	34	25(62.5)	15(37.5)
Health systems, policy and mental health and disability legislation studies in order to unpack human-rights issues and their impact on mental health and disability; and integrate mental health in primary health care (What proportion of people with mental health and disability related health care needs access the services they require, and do not suffer financial hardship as a result? How does this differ by different groups: men/ women, rural/ urban, rich/ poor, etc? What are the causes of stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness and what steps can be taken to address it?)	162 (58.9%)/4.05	33	32	29	34	34	26(65)	14(35)
	161 (58.5%)/4.03	35	30	28	34	34	26(66.7)	13(33.3)
Epidemiological studies on incidence and prevalence of mental health conditions and to identify how mental health conditions emerge, what makes people more susceptible or resilient than others, consequences (How does extreme poverty and other social determinants (including domestic abuse, childhood adversity) exacerbate mental health conditions in Ghana?)	161 (58.5%)/4.03	34	32	28	33	34	24(60)	16(40)
Design and evaluation of intervention studies, including economic evaluation (What are the benefits and challenges of delivering mental healthcare through community-based instead of institutional care and what impact does the removal of institutional care have on mental healthcare in Ghana?)	160 (58.2%)/3.97	33	33	30	33	31	24(60)	16(40)
Health systems, policy and mental health and disability legislation studies in order to unpack human-rights issues and their impact on mental health and disability; and integrate mental health in primary health care (What is the importance of community mental health officers in mental health delivery?)	159 (57.8%)/3.87	33	32	31	32	31	24(60)	16(40)
Mean CNRI criteria score (n = 55)	-	30.4	31.7	32.2	32.3	33.5

^aDeliverability

Figure 3. Distribution of mean research capacity score by research domains.

Key:HSR: Health Services Research; DisR: Disability Research; GMH: Global Mental Health Research; Qual: Qualitative Research; PopSurv: Population Level Surveys; Econs: Economic Evaluation; Eva_Cmplx_intvn: Evaluation of Complex Interventions; AnalysisPop_data: Analysis of complex population datasets; HlthEcons_model: Health economics evaluation; Impl_science: Implementation science; ServiceUsers: Empowering service users in research; ActionRsh: Action Research; Stigma: Research on stigma and discrimination; PE: Public engagement; Ethics: Ethical conduct of research; SBCC: Social and Behaviour Change CommunicationRed bars: illustrating mean score values <3 (weak research capacity)