Projects / Programmes
Needs assessment for mental health in Slovenia: development, preparation and implementation of a tool
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 3.08.00 |
Medical sciences |
Public health (occupational safety) |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 3.03 |
Medical and Health Sciences |
Health sciences |
mental health, needs assessment, validation study, qualitative research, quantitative research
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
33164 |
PhD Irena Makivić |
Public health (occupational safety) |
Head |
2020 - 2023 |
82 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Mental health needs research is the foundation for establishing an effective and locally tailored network of mental health services and services that, through a community-based approach, provide care to people flexibly in their local settings. Available data show that psychiatric disorders are one of the greatest public health challenges of modern times in Europe both in terms of prevalence and the burden of disease and disability. According to some reports, an individual with a behavioral disorder in their early childhood by the age of 27 also has a 10-fold greater financial burden on society than peers. Life expectancy for people with psychiatric diagnoses is up to 20 years shorter than for other people due to comorbidity and lack of care. Therefore, data on the current state of affairs both in Slovenia and at European and world level are accessible. In Slovenia, the regional risk for poor mental health is very different. Regional differences can be attributed, in part, to different mental health indicators and partly to the inequalities in access to assistance for mental disorders in the regions. In most countries in the European region, mental health services therefore seek to integrate basic health care, but to varying degrees. The best way to get patients closer to their patients and reduce their risks is to integrate treatment, prevention and health promotion at the basic level of health and social care and improve the quality of work at that level. Clinical experience and research evidence has shown that the implementation of community services is successful, given that a balance is struck between institutional and community forms of treatment. The aim of the postdoctoral project is to develop a tool for assessing mental health needs, which requires an examination of good practices abroad and their adaptation to social and economic circumstances in Slovenia. The research tool developed will cover the assessment of mental health needs and will be locally specific but methodologically internationally comparable. It will focus on a comprehensive needs assessment and identification of gaps in mental health care. There are no analyzes that interdisciplinary (from the perspective of different professions) and holistic (from the perspective of different stakeholders) examining the needs, satisfaction and involvement of users in new forms of community mental health treatment models in the changed demographic circumstances. The acquired tool will be able to obtain data on the basis of which proposals for improvement of current forms of health and social care will be based.
