A Need Research On The Mental Health Services For The Disabled People

The development and improvement of the mental health services system isessential for the well-being of the disabled people as a result of their vulnerability inmental health conditions. Being a means to improve the current situation, an evaluationon the need of mental health services for the disabled people is necessary at the firstplace. To achieve this aim, we have conducted four studies by taking advantage of bothquantitative and qualitative methods. The first study was to develop and revisit aquestionnaire on the need of mental health services for the disabled people. The secondstudy was to investigate different tendencies on the need of the mental health servicesfor disabled people in great variety by using a survey and the questionnaire referredabove. The third study was, in the approach of interpretative phenomenologicalanalysis (IPA) on discourses from collective interviews, to form multiple themes thatcould capture the need of the disabled people in a more vivid and dedicated sense. Thefourth study was a case study which highlighted the importance of positive attitudewhen coping with crisis. The first and second study used a sample of729subjects. Afactor analysis of the initial41items led to a solution of three factor structure with21items in the final. The Cronbach’s αfor the whole questionnaire was.949. The firstfactor was named “need on services”, which referred to a general attitude towardmental health services; the second factor was named “public services”, which referredto the tendency to seek mental health services from public associations or communities;the third factor was named “professional services”, which referred to the tendency toseek mental health services from hospitals, school, or private counselors. The findingof study2showed that, although there was no significant differences between gender,area, type or severity of disability and the need of mental health services for thedisabled people, the significant finding revealed that a) as the couple’s degree ofdisability was less severe, the disabled people became more likely to seek help fromthe public organizations; b) with more regularity to take health examination and abetter effect of recovery, the disabled people had more positive attitude toward mentalhealth need in general, as well as more likely to seek help from public organizations; and c) when received more subsides from government, the disabled people were morelikely to seek help from both public organization and professional practitioners. Ingeneral, by the analysis of multiple regression, we found that there were three variables,which were regularity of health examination, effect of recovery, and monthly cost,significantly predicted the level of tendency to accept mental health services. Anotherfinding was that the disabled people were more positive in seeking mental healthservices from governmental organizations and communities. The third study foundseven themes on the need and mental conditions of the disabled people by collectiveinterviews with12disabled people from Nanan districts and8disabled people and5working stuffs from Yuzhong districts respectively. The first themes was on theunderstanding, need and requirements of mental health services, in which loneness wasthe most significant disturbance for the disabled people. The second themes was onoutgoing difficulties for the disabled people, in which the insufficiency of publicinfrastructures and prejudices from normal people produced mental disturbances,especially anger, from disabled people. The third themes was on family and work, inwhich the vulnerability in adaption to work environment and subsequent prejudicesmade great troubles for the disabled people. The fourth themes was on love andmarriage, in which the disabled people behaved in great caution and worrisome. Thefifth themes was on the characteristics of emotion, in which people in different types ofdisability would manifest unique patterns of emotional disturbances. The sixth themewas on the strong motivation to be independent and self-sustainable for the disabledpeople. The forth study showed a real life case with the aim to emphasize theimportance for a man to have an optimistic attitude in successful coping when hebecame disabled after a car accident. In conclusion, we suggested that the need ofmental health services for the disabled people were largely constrained by theireconomic status and physical conditions, which meant, only when their economic andphysical conditions were not too bad, they could have enough power to attend to theirneed of mental health services. In addition, if they have the capital to acquire mentalhealth services, they are more inclined to seek help from public organizations, such asthe associations of the disabled people and the community center.