A Rapid Review of the Roles of Community Rehabilitation Workers in Community-based Mental Health Services in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Purpose: The term Community Rehabilitation Worker (CRW) encompasses a group of mid-level health workers introduced within healthcare systems to increase accessibility to health- care services for individuals within the community sphere. This study aimed to summarise the current knowledge on the role of community rehabilitation workers in community-based mental health services in low- and middle- income countries.
Method: Between the 10th and 17th of July, 2020, searches were conducted on the following databases: Cochrane, EbscoHost, Primo, and Pubmed. The search strategy identified 521 individual records, 4 of which were included in this review: 2 qualitative descriptive studies, 1 quantitative descriptive study and 1 conceptual study.
Results: Across the 4 studies, eight roles of community rehabilitation workers were identified in relation to mental health services: home visits, client illness management, referral, documentation and administration, client and family education, community education, intersectoral collaboration and mediation. There was no data found on the role of community rehabilitation workers in mental health services in low- and middle- income countries specifically, indicating a gap in research.
Conclusion: There is a need to improve knowledge and understanding of the roles and responsibilities of community rehabilitation workers where mental health service provision is concerned. The data summarised in this review could be utilised to educate health professionals regarding the role of community rehabilitation workers.
Keywords
Authors
How to Cite
Download Citation
License
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License By-NC-ND 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access ).
Similar Articles
- Alexandra Lewis Gargett, Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Stephanie Short, Pauline Kleinitz, Identifying Rehabilitation Workforce Strengths, Concerns and Needs: A Case Study from the Pacific Islands , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 27 No. 2 (2016): Summer 2016
- Jessica O'Dowd, Malcolm MacLachlan, Chapel Khasnabis, Priscille Geiser, Towards a Core Set of Clinical Skills for Health-Related Community Based Rehabilitation in Low and Middle Income Countries , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 26 No. 3 (2015): Autumn 2015
- Rosamond H. Madden, Sue Lukersmith, Michael J Millington, Charlotte Scarf, Nicola Fortune, Sally Hartley, Gwynnyth Llewellyn, Participatory Monitoring of Community-Based Rehabilitation and other Disability- Inclusive Development Programmes: the Development of a Manual and Menu , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 26 No. 4 (2015): Winter 2015
- Nafisa Lira Huq, Tanya Jane Edmonds, Sally Baker, Lucy Busjia, Alexandra Devine, Kathy Fotis, Manjula Marella, Nicolas Goujon, Jill Keeffe, The Rapid Assessment of Disability – Informing the Development of an Instrument to Measure the Effectiveness of Disability Inclusive Development Through a Qualitative Study in Bangladesh , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 24 No. 3 (2013): Autumn
- Rebekah Young, Matthew Reeve, Nathan Grills, The Functions of Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) in Low and Middle-income Countries: A Literature Review , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 27 No. 3 (2016): Autumn 2016
- Nicole Bishop, Dr Raania Amaani, Professor Deepthi N Shanbhag, Professor Beena Koshy, Fairlene Soji, Associate Professor Kaaren Mathias, Dr Lorane Scaria , Professor Saju Madavanakadu Devassy, Francis Annuncia S, Shiva Mohan Rao , Dr Suresh Karuppannan, Professor Nathan Grills , Experiences Caregiving Together: Optimising the Involvement of Fathers of Children with Disabilities in India , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 37 No. 1 (2026): Spring Issue
- Huib Cornielje, A response to the editorial of March 2026 "Bridging the Research–Practice Gap: A Crisis of Values in Rehabilitation” by Zelalem Dessalegn Demeke , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 37 No. 2 (2026): Summer Issue
- Joerg Weber, Sarah Polack, Sally Hartley, An Online Survey on Identification of Evaluation Capacity, Needs and Current Practice of Programme Evaluation in Community-based Rehabilitation , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 27 No. 2 (2016): Summer 2016
- selvaraj samuelkamaleshkumar, Prof. Lynette Joubert, Dr. Judy Ann John, Mr. Elango A, Prof. Nathan Grills, The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Rehabilitation and Community Reintegration of Individuals with Physical Disabilities: A Scoping Review: Faith-Based Rehabilitation and Reintegration , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 37 No. 3 (2026): Autumn Issue
- Goli Hashemi, Mary Wickenden, Ana Leticia Santos, Shaffa Hameed, Stakeholders’ perspectives on a pilot project focusing on improving access to primary healthcare for adults with disability in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala , Disability, CBR & Inclusive Development: Vol. 36 No. 2 (2025): Summer Issue
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.