Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of health
professionals regarding mental healthcare services quality at a selected
psychiatric mental health setting in Lesotho. An exploratory descriptive
qualitative design was used to collect data using semi-structured interviews
from a sample of 14 mental healthcare workers who were purposively
sampled. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data and four
themes, ten categories and 33 subcategories were developed. The findings
indicated that psychiatric mental health care professionals understood the
concept of quality mental healthcare and they were motivated to do their
work. However, there are some challenges incurred by these professionals.
The challenges were found to be institutional, environmental, human
resource related and work relationship-related in nature. The participants
revealed that they lacked support from the Ministry of Health, resources and
equipment, standard operating procedures. The challenge of human
resources is reflected by lack of a psychiatrist, no continuous professional
development and long working hours. Participants expressed work
relationship challenges includIing non-supportive correctional services
officers in the Forensic unit and lack of support from patient relatives and
the community. We conclude that there is a dire need to capacitate the
professionals at the hospital and to scale up the quality of services. There is
need to provide continued education support through refresher courses to
the staff at this facility.