Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T05:54:05.592Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Retention factors affecting migrant psychiatrists from low- and middle-income countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Prianka Padmanathan
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, UK, email [email protected]
James N. Newell
Affiliation:
Nuffield Centre for International Health & Development, Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, Leeds, UK
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A major barrier to the large treatment gap in mental healthcare in low- and middle-income countries is the shortage of psychiatrists, partly caused by a brain drain. This qualitative study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the motivations and experiences of migrant psychiatrists in order to address retention factors. We interviewed a convenience sample of 11 psychiatrists from Afghanistan, Iraq, South Asia and Africa. Interviews were semi-structured and based on questions about the participants' reasons for emigrating, their expectations and experiences of the move, their views of psychiatry as a profession in their country of origin and whether any incentives would persuade them to return. Prevention of emigration appears to be far more effective than encouraging expatriates to return; an improvement in training and job opportunities could have a drastic impact on retention. Almost all the psychiatrists interviewed intended to contribute to training and raising the profile of psychiatry in their country of origin, and therefore their emigration may have long-term benefits. It could potentially break the cycle between lack of understanding, lack of demand for mental health services and lack of training. It should therefore be an ethical obligation of UK employers to offer migrant psychiatrists time and support to facilitate these contributions.

Type
Research papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2012

Footnotes

The assistance of Leeds University Research Enterprise is gratefully acknowledged.

References

Chatterjee, S., Leese, M., Koschorke, M., et al (2011) Collaborative community based care for people and their families living with schizophrenia in India: protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials, 12, 12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. & Gater, R. (1996) Implications of the World Health Organization study of mental illness in general health care for training primary care staff. British Journal of General Practice, 46, 483485.Google ScholarPubMed
Gureje, O., Hollins, S., Botbo, M., et al (2009) Report of the WPA Task Force on Brain Drain. World Psychiatry, 8, 115118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, R., Kydd, R., Mullen, P., et al (2010) International migration of doctors, and its impact on availability of psychiatrists in low and middle income countries. Plos One, 5, E9049.10.1371/journal.pone.0009049CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohn, R., Saxena, S., Levav, I., et al (2004) The treatment gap in mental health care. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82, 858866.Google ScholarPubMed
Saraceno, B., Van Ommeren, M., Batniji, R., et al (2007) Barriers to improvement of mental health services in low-income and middle-income countries. Lancet, 370, 11641174.10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61263-XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (2001) Atlas: Country Profiles of Mental Health Resources. WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.