A qualitative exploration of a family self-help mental health program in El Salvador

BACKGROUND: There is a significant gap in our knowledge regarding community-based self-help groups and their benefits for persons living with mental conditions and their family caregivers in low and middle income countries. This study describes a such a program in El Salvador and explores participants’ perceptions of program effectiveness and benefits. CASE DESCRIPTION: The Family Education, Support and Empowerment Program is a multi-component program in the capital that is facilitated by nonprofit professionals but carried out primarily by volunteers. A focus group methodology to build evaluation and research capacity in the organization was used. The study consisted of a questionnaire completed by participants individually, followed by two focus group sessions with the same ten people. RESULTS: The study found perceptions of multiple benefits across social, functional, and economic dimensions and a variety of achievements at organizational and national levels. DISCUSSION: This study identified a family self-help program in El Salvador as a potentially highly beneficial program for its participants. This appears to be the first study to explore benefits across micro, mezzo and macro social levels and to include discussion of more diverse potential benefits such as individual and organizational social capital, leadership, and advocacy. These factors should be explored in future quantitative studies to help determine the relative importance and usefulness of such programs in meeting World Health Organization goals for access to mental health treatment and quality community-based services. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13033-016-0058-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.