Has implementation of integrated mental health services in primary care programs positively impacted health outcomes among the mentally ill in developing countries?

Objective. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 450 million people suffer from a mental disorder in the world. Developing countries do not have the health system structure in place to support the demand of mental health services. This study will conduct a review of mental health integration in primary care research that is carried out in low-income countries identified as such from the World Bank economic analysis. The research follows the standard of care that WHO has labeled appropriate in treatment of mental health populations. Methods. This study will use the WHO 10 principles of mental health integration into primary care as the global health standard of care for mental health. Low-income countries that used these principles in their national programs will be analyzed for effectiveness of mental health integration in primary care. Results. This study showed that mental health service integration in primary care did have an effect on health outcomes of low-income countries. However, information did not lead to significant quantitative results that determined how positive the effect was. Conclusion. More ethnographic research is needed in low-income countries to truly assess how effective the program is in integrating with the health system currently in place.^ ^

PREPAID MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES: A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of this 1982 national survey of all operational prepaid health plans, or PHPs (including health maintenance organizations), was to provide information on the current coverage of PHP mental health and substance abuse services, benefits and service provision, general and mental health organization characteristics, mental health service costs, and physical and mental health service utilization.^ Two survey instruments were designed, pretested and distributed to all operational PHPs throughout the United States. A total of 237 PHPs were surveyed, of which 205 (86.50 percent) completed and returned both questionnaires.^ One result of the rapid growth in the PHP field over the past ten years has been the expansion in both the number of PHPs as well as the organizational characteristics of these PHPs. However, little attention in the research literature has been given to the application of empirical results to the PHP arrangements. This project has attempted to contribute to current knowledge regarding prepaid mental health services from a national perspective, and explore, on a preliminary descriptive basis, the variety of potential service delivery arrangements for physical and mental health services (total services) and for mental health services.^ The study emphasized that PHPs must continue to monitor the costs and utilization of mental health services, particularly in light of the apparent elimination of data collection and statistical summary responsibilities within the federal government regarding PHP activities as well as the proposed legislation to eliminate mandated mental health and substance abuse services from basic health plan benefits for federally qualified PHPs. ^

Physician coding for mental illness reimbursement and the need for mental health parity

Many patients with anxiety and depression initially seek treatment from their primary care physicians. Changes in insurance coverage and current mental parity laws, make reimbursement for services a problem. This has led to a coding dilemma for physicians seeking payment for their services. This study seeks to determine first the frequency at which primary care physicians use alternative coding, and secondly, if physicians would change their coding practices, provided reimbursement was assured through changes in mental parity laws. A mail survey was sent to 260 randomly selected primary care physicians, who are family practice, internal medicine, and general practice physicians, and members of the Harris County Medical Society. The survey evaluated the physicians' demographics, the number of patients with psychiatric disorders seen by primary care physicians, the frequency with which physicians used alternative coding, and if mental parity laws changed, the rate at which physicians would use a psychiatric illness diagnosis as the primary diagnostic code. The overall response rate was 23%. Only 47 of the 59 physicians, who responded, qualified for the study and of those 45% used a psychiatric disorder to diagnose patients with a primary psychiatric disorder, 47% used a somatic/symptom disorder, and 8% used a medical diagnosis. From the physicians who would not use a psychiatric diagnosis as a primary ICD-9 code, 88% were afraid of not being reimbursed and 12% were worried about stigma or jeopardizing insurability. If payment were assured using a psychiatric diagnostic code, 81% physicians would use a psychiatric diagnosis as the primary diagnostic code. However, 19% would use an alternative diagnostic code in fear of stigmatizing and/or jeopardizing patients' insurability. Although the sample size of the study design was adequate, our survey did not have an ideal response rate, and no significant correlation was observed. However, it is evident that reimbursement for mental illness continues to be a problem for primary care physicians. The reformation of mental parity laws is necessary to ensure that patients receive mental health services and that primary care physicians are reimbursed. Despite the possibility of improved mental parity legislation, some physicians are still hesitant to assign patients with a mental illness diagnosis, due to the associated stigma, which still plays a role in today's society. ^

Understanding mental illness in Nigeria: Bringing culture and traditional medicine into mental health policy

One of the major challenges in treating mental illness in Nigeria is that the health care facilities and mental health care professionals are not enough in number or well equipped to handle the burden of mental illness. There are several barriers to treatment for individual Nigerians which include the following: such as the lack of understanding of the root causes of mental illness, lack of financial support to get mental treatment, lack of social support (family, friends, neighbors), the fear of stigmatization concerning being labeled as mentally ill or being in association with the mentally ill, and the consultation of traditional native healers who may be unknowingly prolonging illness, rather than addressing and treating them due to lack of formal education and standardization of their treatments. Another barrier is the non-health nature of the mental health services in Nigeria. Traditional healers are essentially the mental health system. The elderly, women, and children are the most vulnerable groups in times of strife and hardships. Their mental well-being must be taken into account as well as their special needs in times of personal or societal crisis. ^ Nigerian mental health policy is geared toward forming a mental health system, but in actuality only a mental illness care system is the observed result of the policy. The government of Nigeria has drafted a mental health policy, yet its actual implementation into the Nigerian health infrastructure and society waits to be materialized. The limited health legislation or policy implementations tend to favor those who have access to these urban areas and the facilities' health services. Nigerians living in rural areas are at a disadvantage; many of them may not even be aware of services available to help them understand and treat mental illness. Perhaps, government driven health interventions geared toward mental illness in rural areas would reach an underserved Nigerians and Africans in general. Issues with political instability and limited infrastructure often hinder crucial financial resources and legislation from reaching the people that are truly in need of governmental leadership in regards to mental health policy.^ Traditional healers are a severely untapped resource in the treatment of mental illness within the Nigerian population. They are abundant within Nigerian communities and are meeting a real need for the mentally ill. However, much can be done to remove the barriers that prevent the integration of traditional healers within the mental health system and improve the quality of care they administer within the population. Mental illness is almost exclusively coped with through traditional medicine practices. Mobilization and education from each strata of Nigerian society and government as well as input from the medical community can improve how traditional medicine is utilized as a treatment for clinical illness and help alleviate the heavy burden of mental illness in Nigeria. Currently, there is no existing policy making structure for a working mental health system in Nigeria, and traditional healers are not taken into account in any formulation of mental health policy. Advocacy for mental illness is severely inadequate due to fear of stigmatization, with no formally recognized national of regional mental health association.^

Gender disparities in utilization, unmet need and expenditure for mental health care

Objectives: To compare mental health care utilization regarding the source, types, and intensity of mental health services received, unmet need for services, and out of pocket cost among non-institutionalized psychologically distressed women and men. ^ Method: Cross-sectional data for 19,325 non-institutionalized mentally distressed adult respondents to the “The National Survey on Drug Use and Health” (NSDUH), for the years 2006 -2008, representing over twenty-nine millions U.S. adults was analyzed. To assess the relative odds for women compared to men, logistic regression analysis was used for source of service, for types of barriers, for unmet need and cost; zero inflated negative binomial regression for intensity of utilization; and ordinal logistic regression analysis for quantifying out-of-pocket expenditure. ^ Results: Overall, 43% of mentally distressed adults utilized a form of mental health treatment; representing 12.6 million U.S psychologically distressed adults. Females utilized more mental health care compared to males in the previous 12 months (OR: 1. 70; 95% CI: 1.54, 1.83). Similarly, females were 54% more likely to get help for psychological distress in an outpatient setting and females were associated with an increased probability of using medication for mental distress (OR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.63, 1.98). Women were 1.25 times likelier to visit a mental health center (specialty care) than men. ^ Females were positively associated with unmet needs (OR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.29, 1.75) after taking into account predisposing, enabling, and need (PEN) characteristics. Women with perceived unmet needs were 23% (OR: 0.77; 95% CI: 0.59, 0.99) less likely than men to report societal accommodation (stigma) as a barrier to mental health care. At any given cutoff point, women were 1.74 times likelier to be in the higher payment categories for inpatient out of pocket cost when other variables in the model are held constant. Conclusions: Women utilize more specialty mental healthcare, report more unmet need, and pay more inpatient out of pocket costs than men. These gender disparities exist even after controlling for predisposing, enabling, and need variables. Creating policies that not only provide mental health care access but also de-stigmatize mental illness will bring us one step closer to eliminating gender disparities in mental health care.^

Intensive Family Preservation in Children's Mental Health: Predictors of Placement

This article examines the predictors of placement following IFPSfor a sample of child mental health service recipients and their families. Risk and protective factors vary depending on the time frame under consideration. Immediately following service, children 's level of Social/Legal functioning, a previous group home placement, and the presence of mental health problems for other family members increase risk of placement, while the number of follow-up services serves to lessen risk. Three to six months after service, the presence of a child behavior presenting problem and a projected placement in foster care serve as protective factors, while two service targets, alcohol monitoring and time management, serve to increase risk. Appropriate use of results for program design and for structuring access to services is discussed.

Community participation in health services

This study critically analyzes and synthesizes community participation (CP) theory across disciplines, defining and beginning to map out the elements of CP according to a preliminary framework of structure, process, intermediate outcomes, and ultimate outcomes. The first study component sought to determine the impact of Sight N' Soul, a CP project utilizing neighborhood health workers (NHWs), on appointment missing in an indigent urban African-American population. It found that persons entering the vision care system through contact with an NEW were about a third less likely to miss an appointment than those persons entering the system through some other avenue. While theory in this area remains too poorly developed to hypothesize causal relationships between structure, process, and outcomes, a summary of the elements of Sight N' Soul's structure and process both developed the preliminary framework and serves as a first step to mapping these relationships. The second component of the study uncovered the elements of structure and process that may contribute to a sustained egalitarian partnership between community people and professionals, a CP program called Project HEAL. Elements of Project HEAL's structure and process included a shared belief in the program; spirituality; contribution, ownership, and reciprocation; a feeling of family; making it together; honesty, trust, and openness about conflict; the inevitability of uncertainty and change; and the guiding interactional principles of respect; love, care, and compassion; and personal responsibility. The third component analyzed the existing literature, identifying and addressing gaps and inconsistencies and highlighting areas needing more highly developed ethical analysis. Focal issues include the political, economic, and historical context of CP; the power of naming; the issue of purpose; the nature of community; the power to muster and allocate resources; and the need to move to a systems view of health and well-being, expanding our understanding of the universe of potential outcomes of CP, including iatrogenic outcomes. Intermediate outcomes might include change in community, program, and individual capacity, as well as improved health care delivery. Ultimate outcomes include increased positive interdependencies and opportunities for contribution; improved mental, physical, and spiritual health; increased social justice; and decreased exploitation. ^