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Background: South Africa faces a number of significant challenges apropos mental health service delivery, including a large treatment gap, a high rate of readmission, over-burdened specialist tertiary facilities, and slow integration of mental health into general health services. The South African National Mental Health Education Programme implemented between February 2019 and December 2019, aimed to upskill health workers to diagnose and manage mental disorders at primary and secondary levels of care. Aim: This study aimed to assess the evolution of training participants’ self-reported competency in mental health care and the number of referrals made to higher levels of care as well as to reflect on the possible broader effects of the training. Setting: The programme and study were conducted in South Africa with Medical Officers and Professional Nurses working at public sector primary and secondary level health care facilities. Methods: A descriptive observational study collected data from training participants through a pre- and post-course, and 3-month follow-up survey. Results: The average confidence ratings for performing mental health care activities and managing mental health conditions increased from pre- to post-course, and was either maintained or increased further at 3-month follow-up. A decrease in the self-reported percentage of patients being referred to a higher level of care was observed 3-months after the training. Conclusion: The evaluation suggests that a brief training intervention such this can go a long way in increasing the confidence of primary and secondary level health care workers in managing common mental health conditions and adhering to the provisions of legislation.

INTRODUCTION: Despite the high prevalence and significant burden of mental disorders, they remain grossly under-diagnosed and undertreated. In low-income countries, such as Mali, integrating mental health services into primary care is the most viable way of closing the treatment gap. This program aimed to provide a mental health training intervention to rural general practitioners (GPs), to organize community awareness activities, and to evaluate the impact on mental health knowledge and through the number of new patients diagnosed with mental disorders and managed by these general practitioners. METHODS: a pre-test/post-test design and the monthly monitoring of the number of new patients diagnosed with mental disorders by the trained GPs were used to evaluate the effect of the training interventions (2 face-to-face group training workshops followed by individual follow-up supervisions) and of the community awareness activities. RESULTS: the mean knowledge score of the 19 GPs who completed the initial 12-day group training raised from 24.6/100 at baseline, to 61.5/100 after training (p=0.001), a 150% increase. Among them, sixteen completed the second 6-day group training with a mean score increasing from 50.2/100 to 70.1/100 (p=0.001), a 39.6% improvement. Between July 2018 and June 2020, 2,396 new patients were diagnosed with a mental disorder by the 19 GPs who took part in the program. CONCLUSION: despite limited data regarding the effect of the community awareness component at this stage, the findings from this study suggest that the training intervention improved GPs’ knowledge and skills, resulting in a significant number of new patients being identified and managed.