Professional Service Utilisation among Patients with Severe Mental Disorders

Abstract

Background Generally, patients with serious mental disorders (SMD) are frequent users of services who generate high care-related costs. Current reforms aim to increase service integration and primary care for improved patient care and health-care efficiency. This article identifies and compares variables associated with the use by patients with SMD of services offered by psychiatrists, case managers, and general practitioners (GPs). It also compares frequent and infrequent service use. Method One hundred forty patients with SMD from five regions in Quebec, Canada, were interviewed on their use of services in the previous year. Patients were also required to complete a questionnaire on needs-assessment. In addition, data were collected from clinical records. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted. Results Most patients used services from psychiatrists and case managers, but no more than half consulted GPs. Most patients were followed at least by two professionals, chiefly psychiatrists and case managers. Care access, continuity of care, and total help received were the most important variables associated with the different types of professional consultation. These variables were also associated with frequent use of professional service, as compared with infrequent service use. In all, enabling factors rather than need factors were the core predictors of frequency of service utilisation by patients with SMD. Conclusion This study reveals that health care system organisation and professional practice - rather than patient need profiles - are the core predictors of professional consultation by patients with SMD. The homogeneity of our study population, i.e. mainly users with schizophrenia, recently discharged from hospital, may partly account for these results. Our findings also underscored the limited involvement of GPs in this patient population's care. As comorbidity is often associated with serious mental disorders, closer follow-up by GPs is needed. Globally, more effort should be directed at increasing shared-care initiatives, which would enhance coordination among psychiatrists, GPs, and psychosocial teams (including case managers). Finally, there is a need to increase awareness among health care providers, especially GPs, of the level of care required by patients with disabling and serious mental disorders.

Gaps in health care for the somatic health of outpatients with severe mental illness

“…Outpatients with SMI consulted the mental health nurse of the hospital frequently; approximately a fifth had almost no contact with their psychiatrist. More than half of the patients were in regular contact with their GP which is comparable to a Canadian study (Fleury et al . 2010), but approximately a third of patients did not consult their GP regularly.…”

“…with SMI consulted the mental health nurse of the hospital frequently; approximately a fifth had almost no contact with their psychiatrist. More than half of the patients were in regular contact with their GP which is comparable to a Canadian study (Fleury et al 2010), but approximately a third of patients did not consult their GP regularly. Comparing our results with another Dutch study about the frequency of visits to the GP is difficult because they only included patients who visited at least once a year ).…”

“…2002; Jones et al . 2004) or conducted interviews asking for already diagnosed diseases (Fleury et al . 2010; Saha et al .…”

“…Frequently, patients with SMI suffer from obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (De Hert et al 2011;Dickey et al 2002;Fleury et al 2010;Jones et al 2004;Saha et al 2007), but most of these studies retrieved data from medical records (Dickey et al 2002;Jones et al 2004) or conducted interviews asking for already diagnosed diseases (Fleury et al 2010;Saha et al 2007). Some studies included only subgroups, for example, patients who were admitted to the hospital (Plomondon et al 2007).…”

Client and key worker ratings of need in first‐episode psychosis early intervention programmes

“…Clients with psychotic disorders and other major mental illnesses are significant users of a range of health-care and community services and often have high and complex levels of need. 3 In keeping with the idea of negotiated need, several studies have investigated the nature of concordance (or lack thereof) between clients' perception of met and unmet needs and the perception of their health-care provider(s). Most studies have been conducted in adults with chronic mental illnesses who receive care from community outpatient psychiatric services.…”