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Volume 11,Issue 3

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26 March 2026

Facilitators and Barriers Influencing Tertiary Medical Institutions Physicians’ Willingness to Participate in mhGAP Training

Weicheng Qin1 Zhonglun Zhu1 Xi Chen1 Wei Jiang*1
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1 Department of Orthopedics, People’s Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang 618000, Sichuan, China
APM 2026 , 11(3), 183–191; https://doi.org/10.18063/APM.v11i3.1669
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee Whioce Publishing, Singapore. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Background: In response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4 (mental health target), this study aimed to explore the facilitating and barrier factors influencing doctors’ willingness to participate in the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) training in tertiary hospitals, using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 physicians from tertiary hospitals. Content analysis was performed using NVivo 11, and results were reported in accordance with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ). Results: A total of 23 facilitating factors and 13 barrier factors were identified, distributed across five CFIR dimensions: innovation, outer setting, inner setting, individuals, and implementation process. Results showed that the implementation process dimension contained the most facilitating factors (n = 7), while the outer setting dimension had the most barrier factors (n = 4). Conclusions: The study indicates that mhGAP training has strong promotion potential in tertiary hospitals. However, targeted optimization of external support systems and implementation details is required to enable mhGAP training in tertiary medical institutions to play a leading, supportive, and radiating role in alleviating mental health resource scarcity and optimizing mental health services.

Keywords
Mental health services
Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) training
Implementation science
Consolidated framework for implementation research (CFIR)
Facilitating and barrier factors
Funding
Supported by the Sichuan Hospital Management and Development Research Center,Southwest Medical University (SCYG2024-25)
References

[1] Keynejad R, Dua T, Barbui C, et al., 2018, WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Intervention Guide: A Systematic Review of Evidence from Low and Middle-Income Countries. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 21(1): 29–33.

[2] Damschroder L, Reardon C, Widerquist M, et al., 2022, The Updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research Based on User Feedback. Implementation Science, 17(1): 75.

[3] Mutiso V, Gitonga I, Musau A, et al., 2018, A Step-Wise Community Engagement and Capacity Building Model Prior to Implementation of mhGAP-IG in a Low- and Middle-Income Country: A Case Study of Makueni County, Kenya. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12: 57.

[4] Ryan G, Nwefoh E, Aguocha C, et al., 2020, Partnership for the Implementation of Mental Health Policy in Nigeria: A Case Study of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Programme in Benue State. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(1): 10.

[5] Miguel-Esponda G, Bohm-Levine N, Rodriguez-Cuevas F, et al., 2020, Implementation Process and Outcomes of a Mental Health Programme Integrated in Primary Care Clinics in Rural Mexico: A Mixed-Methods Study. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(1): 21.

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