Integrated Mental Health Care: Needs and Models, workshop (Public Mental Health Section)
(2012) 5th European Public Health Conference — Location: Malta (8.November.2012)
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EurJPublicHealth-2012--10-125.pdf
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- Abstract
- As a result of the deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric services in Europe, fragmentation in mental health care delivery systems has become a public mental health issue in many countries. Fragmentation contributes to inefficiency and ineffectiveness in healthcare delivery, and to health inequalities. There might be a lack of continuity and coordination in (mental) health and social care delivery, due to structural divisions, separate administrative and policy sectors, complex and diverse funding schemes, and distinct professional backgrounds. This affects people with chronic, multiple, and complex needs, such as chronic and severe mentally ill users, multi-morbid, and disabled. Such vulnerable patients require integrated care of both a medical and social nature within a multidisciplinary integrated approach, covering a wide variety of physical, mental health, and social care interventions. Integration of care can be achieved with the help of tools and interventions at different levels: the level of the user, e.g. case-management or individualised care planning, the level of the services, e.g. comprehensive community mental health centres, and the level of the whole system, e.g. referrals or managed care. Research has been investigating how to improve integration of care delivery for such vulnerable groups. However, on the one hand, there is a lack of consensus on how to define integration of care, how to measure it, and which data sources best capture the concepts measured. On the other hand, studies carried out on strategies for system integration (the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation programme, ACCESS, the Fort Bragg Experiment, Housing First…) failed to detect measurable effects at the level of the user. How can we address the fragmentation issue in mental health care delivery, how can we measure it at the different levels, how research can assess and contribute to integrated mental health delivery policies, and how integrated mental health care affect user's outcomes?
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Citations
Nicaise, P., & Lindert, J. (2012). Integrated Mental Health Care: Needs and Models, workshop (Public Mental Health Section). Published. 5th European Public Health Conference, Malta. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/232141