THE COMPUTER-BASED DRUG AND ALCOHOL TRAINING ASSESSMENT IN KENYA (eDATA K)
e-DATA K was a project that provided online training to both clinical and non-clinical health workers to acquire competencies adapted from WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) and the WHO ASSIST.
- Africa Mental Health Foundation and NextGenU.org have now shown the feasibility of using online learning to train health workers in practice even in rural areas of Kenya.
- The merits of this model of online training include that it is free, provides convenient access, and is effective in improving the competencies of health workers.
- The screening and interventions (learned from the AMHF and NextGenU.org training) are highly effective, leading to very significant decrease in consumption of alcohol and improved functioning among the more than 1200 patients included in the study.
- The clinical leaders in one of the districts also received a quality improvement online course, which led them to sustain the screening and brief interventions in their regular practice even after the end of the randomized control trial.
Background The Computer-Based Drug and Alcohol Training Assessment in Kenya (eDATA K) project provided online training to both clinical and non-clinical health workers to acquire competencies adapted from the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) and the WHO ASSIST manuals with the goals of helping them to:
-Identify those with SUD - Provide ethical and non-judgmental care to those with SUD
- Use clinical brief intervention techniques
- Provide basic psychological and pharmaceutical treatment
- Identify and assist in managing co-morbidities
- Assist patients and families with self-help strategies
- Determine the need for, and feasibility of, referral