Study Of Mental Health Service Utilization And Its Influencing Factors In Patients With Severe Mental Illness

Research PurposeIn this study, the author studies the mental health service utilization status of patients with severe mental illness home and abroad, and analyzes related experience. The author takes Jiangbei District as the object of empirical research to understand the extent of mental health service utilization of patients with severe mental illness and its influencing factors,providing a scientific basis for the government to develop mental health policies and effective interventions.MethodologyLiterature analysis is adopted to study current utilization of mental health services as well as effective measures to improve the level of mental health. Combining with domestic laws and regulations on mental health enacted in recent years, the author develops questionnaires and interview outlines for investigation of relevant researchers and institutions. In this study, 360 patients with severe mental illness of two communities and a town of Jiangbei District were surveyed by questionnaires and the medicalstaffs working in mental health centers and community health service centers(township hospitals) were interviewed. The questionnaires were collected, and interview materials were sorted out and analyzed. During the investigation, questionnaires, interviews of insiders were adopted and health statistical methods were used in the analysis.Research Results(1) The consultation rate of patients with severe mental illness after the initial onset was 49.4%, medication compliance rate was 41.9%,hospitalization rate was 57.8%, 11.4% received health education, free medical examination rate was 21.9%, and the follow-up rate was 82.8%.(2) Through multivariate logistic regression analysis the author found that the factors that influenced treatment after initial onset of the disease were the patient’s education, monthly family gross income, health insurance type, disease type, and duration; factors affecting the patient,s medication compliance rate were their education, monthly family gross income, health insurance type, disease type, duration and free medication treatment; factors affecting hospitalization rate were their education,monthly family gross income, health insurance type, disease type, and duration; Education and free drugs were factors influencing health education of patients with severe mental illness; the type of health insurance influenced whether patients received medical examination; and whether to accept the free drugs was the main reason affecting the patients,follow-up.(3) It was found in interviews that the lack of government financial investment, insufficient psychiatric bed allocation, obsolete infrastructure,low education level and small number of mental health personnel, limited access to psychotropic drugs in basic medicines catalog and inadequate supply of free drugs influenced the effective supply of psychotropic health services, thus affecting the level of utilization of mental health services.Low professional skills of community mental health care practitioners,heavy tasks and negative coordination of patients or their families affected the utilization of basic public health services.Conclusion and Policy RecommendationsBased on the problems found in theoretical study, empirical analysis,and empirical investigation, the author proposes to improve mental health utilization of mental patients and suggestions to promote the physical and mental rehabilitation: increasing government financial input,giving full play to the positive externalities of mental health products, strengthening mental health talent team construction, ensuring fair treatment, optimizing medical security system, raising social assistance benefits, strengthening assessment of public health service items, and improving the efficiency and quality of service.