Fajr Elhashimi*, Mohammed Ibrahim and Bahga Taha
Objectives: To assess mental health professionals (MHPs) knowledge, attitude and practice in Sudanese psychiatric facilitates. Methods: A cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire targeting the whole population of MHPs which is 141, was conducted at three psychiatric facilities in Khartoum state, Sudan. 89 agreed to participate consisting of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and nurses. Results: 70.8% of MHP’s in this study had adequate knowledge of COVID-19 symptomatology, transmission, management, and preventive measures. 44.9% were not willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Good practices like maintaining quarantine during outbreak and wearing a medical mask were observed. The significant difference found in Spearman’s correlation was between knowledge and attitude which was a negative correlation. Findings showed that MHPs (37.1%, N=33) had positive Practice, (57.3%, N=51) had positive attitude regarding COVID-19. MHPs perceived that lack of an official specialized in infection control, overcrowding in psychiatric patients’ rooms, and Lack of policy procedures of infection control practice were the major barriers to infection control. Conclusion: This study found that MHPs in Sudan have good knowledge, and suggest a special need to scale up facilities’ infection control materials to meet the required good practice.
Published Date: 2022-03-09; Received Date: 2022-02-09
