A descriptive study of demography & transportation issues of chronically mentally ill in the eastern Oregon comprehensive community mental health catchment area

Mental health services have been criticised for failing to respond to the needs of the rising number of homeless mentally ill. We report on the first year of referrals to a community mental health team established to meet the needs of the severely mentally ill homeless in Birmingham. Most users had a psychotic disorder and a lengthy history of unstable housing, and experienced a range of other disadvantages. Although the team is successfully reaching its priority group, examination of other characteristics of users has highlighted a number of issues which should inform the future planning and development of the service.

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Numbers and the Assembling of a Community Mental Health Infrastructure in Postsocialist China

Can Science and Technology Save China? ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501747021.003.0002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 25-49

Author(s):

Zhiying Ma

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Community Mental Health ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Target Population ◽

Ethnographic Research ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Seriously Mentally Ill ◽

Health Infrastructure ◽

Mental Health In China

This chapter shows how globally validated epidemiological estimates have constituted a population of seriously mentally ill patients in China. It talks about the target population of the 686 Program and compares the program's different visions. It also discusses how national and local interests translate estimates into program targets and evaluation standards. The chapter explains how the numbers' circulation in existing bureaucratic pathways can generate controversies of “quota apportioning.” It covers what the numerically guided community mental health infrastructure might include or exclude and when it might work or break down. The data for the chapter draw on ongoing ethnographic research on community mental health in China.

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Mental Healthcare Delivery in Rural Greece: A 10-year Account of a Mobile Mental Health Unit

Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice ◽

10.4103/jnrp.jnrp_142_17 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 08 (04) ◽

pp. 556-561 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Vaios Peritogiannis ◽

Thiresia Manthopoulou ◽

Afroditi Gogou ◽

Venetsanos Mavreas

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Primary Care ◽

Community Mental Health ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Catchment Area ◽

Mental Healthcare ◽

Community Mental Health Service ◽

Primary Care System ◽

Mobile Mental Health ◽

Care System

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Patients living in rural and remote areas may have limited access to mental healthcare due to lack of facilities and socioeconomic reasons, and this is the case of rural areas in Eastern Europe countries. In Greece, community mental health service delivery in rural areas has been implemented through the development of the Mobile Mental Health Units (MMHUs). Methods: We present a 10-year account of the operation of the MMHU of the prefectures of Ioannina and Thesprotia (MMHU I-T) and report on the impact of the service on mental health delivery in the catchment area. The MMHU I-T is a multidisciplinary community mental health team which delivers services in rural and mountainous areas of Northwest Greece. Results: The MMHU I-T has become an integral part of the local primary care system and is well known to the population of the catchment area. By the end of 2016, the majority of patients (60%) were self-referred or family-referred, compared to 24% in the first 2 years. Currently, the number of active patients is 293 (mean age 63 years, 49.5% are older adults), and the mean caseload for each member of the team is 36.6. A significant proportion of patients (28%) receive care with regular domiciliary visits, and the provision of home-based care was correlated with the age of the patients. Within the first 2 years of operation of the MMHU I-T hospitalizations of treatment, engaged patients were reduced significantly by 30.4%, whereas the treatment engagement rates of patients with psychotic disorders were 67.2% in 5 years. Conclusions: The MMHU I-T and other similar units in Greece are a successful paradigm of a low-cost service which promotes mental health in rural, remote, and deprived areas. This model of care may be informative for clinical practice and health policy given the ongoing recession and health budget cuts. It suggests that rural mental healthcare may be effectively delivered by integrating generic community mental health mobile teams into the primary care system.

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Hell in the Family: Married Women and Madness Before Institutionalization at the St-Jean-de-Dieu Asylum, 1890 – 1921

Nursing History Review ◽

10.1891/1062-8061.19.15 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 15-28

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Community Mental Health ◽

Mentally Ill ◽

Family Members ◽

Community Mental Health Services ◽

Married Women ◽

French Canadian ◽

Private Lives ◽

The Family ◽

Seeking Help

Research in Montreal's St-Jean-de-Dieu Asylum archives has revealed a number of letters from family members and local physicians pleading for asylum care for married women between 1890 and 1921. When added to other admission documents in patients' medical files, these letters allow an intimate glimpse into private lives of families and highlight the pain and distress of dealing with mentally ill people in the home before the introduction of community mental health services. Far from easily abandoning a spouse or mother, close-knit French Canadian families struggled until they could no longer cope before seeking help. To comply with asylum regulations, family members (primarily husbands, who were often illiterate) and local physicians were required to justify their applications for admission, but they did so in different ways.

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