Empowering Preschool Teachers to Identify Mental Health Problems: A Task-Sharing Intervention in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia there is a severe shortage of child mental health professionals. Identification and intervention for young children's mental health problems is crucial to improve developmental trajectories and reduce the severity of emotional and behavioral disorders. Teachers can play an important role in early problem detection. This role is particularly impactful in developing countries with limited mental health care resources. However, teachers' knowledge about mental health varies dramatically. This study tested the influence of a training intervention to improve teachers' ability to accurately identify preschool children's emotional and behavioral problems in 24 schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sensitivity and specificity of teacher identification, and overall agreement with an established measurement criterion (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) were examined 2 years following training compared to preintervention baseline, and a nonintervention control group of 12 schools. Results indicate that the teacher training was significantly associated with more accurate identification of children's problems.