Community mental health care worldwide: current status and further developments

Abstract

This paper aims to give an overview of the key issues facing those who are in a position to influence the planning and provision of mental health systems, and who need to address questions of which staff, services and sectors to invest in, and for which patients. The paper considers in turn: a) definitions of community mental health care; b) a conceptual framework to use when evaluating the need for hospital and community mental health care; c) the potential for wider platforms, outside the health service, for mental health improvement, including schools and the workplace; d) data on how far community mental health services have been developed across different regions of the world; e) the need to develop in more detail models of community mental health services for low-and middle-income countries which are directly based upon evidence for those countries; f) how to incorporate mental health practice within integrated models to identify and treat people with comorbid long-term conditions; g) possible adverse effects of deinstitutionalization. We then present a series of ten recommendations for the future strengthening of health systems to support and treat people with mental illness.

Healthcare professionals’ perspectives on mental health service provision: a pilot focus group study in six European countries

“…The discrepancies in the availability and accessibility of MHS recounted by the participants in this study are described in the literature as being inherently associated with the prevailing modes of providing psychosocial services, specifically, to the models of service delivery that are primarily individual-focused [13,[37][38][39]. According to the participants, there are capacity problems arising from how services are organized and planned.…”

“…HPs also need to think in a systemic fashion, paying close attention to each person, their relationships and the social milieu, as these are all important elements of therapeutic interventions [37]. Moreover, such a context encompasses the community [39], rendering the community's voice, needs and engagement indelibly connected to MHC. Developing systems and practices for inter-sectoral collaboration is considered a step toward establishing and fortifying optimal mental healthcare in communities around the world [42,53].…”

Social Media Providing an International Virtual Elective Experience for Student Nurses

“…In moving the dialogue to generic skin protection and epidemiological consequences, the group recognized and chatted about nurses' health education roles in risk reducing behaviours [8]. The posts reflect the value of promoting public health messages in non-health arenas and providing a global picture reflects gaps in quality and type of provision [9].…”

Depression and Anxiety identified to be the Most Commonly Reported Mental Health problems by General Practitioners

“…Mental health disorders can present as changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior, and they can affect familial relationships and social interactions. Furthermore, a large percentage of the World population with mental health disorders does not have timely access to psychiatric care [2][3][4].…”