Identifying Local and Centralized Mental Health Services-The Development of a New Categorizing Variable.

ABSTRACT: The challenges of mental health and substance abuse services (MHS) require shifting of the balance of resources from institutional care to community care. In order to track progress, an instrument that can describe these attributes of MHS is needed. We created a coding variable in the European Service Mapping Schedule-Revised (ESMS-R) mapping tool using a modified Delphi panel that classified MHS into centralized, local services with gatekeeping and local services without gatekeeping. For feasibility and validity, we tested the variable on a dataset comprising MHS in Southern Finland, covering a population of 2.3 million people. There were differences in the characteristics of services between our study regions. In our data, 41% were classified as centralized, 37% as local without gatekeep

SUBMITTER: Ala-Nikkola T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6025394 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature