Mental health service status in Chengdu Communities / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 319 mental health workers from 319 grassroots health institutions of 21 districts (cities,counties) in Chengdu in March 2013.The items of survey included general information of participants,subjective perceptions and status of community mental health services.Total 252 effective questionnaires were received,the average age of participants was (33.12 ± 9.39) years (19-61);59.5％ had clinical medicine and 16.3％ had public health background;most of them had educational levels of three-year college or below (84.9％);the average duration of working experience was 18 months;86.5％ was part-time;most of participants (87.4％) thought that the mental health service was a hard job and only 25.3％ expressed satisfaction with the work.Only 16.3％ of community health service centers had rehabilitation facilities for mental illness patients.Public health education was carried out for average (2.21 ± 1.62) times/year,the education for mental patients and family members was (1.62 ± 1.83) times/year.Between areas with sufficient detection rate of mental illness and those with insufficient detection rate,there was significant difference in training frequency of mental workers (P =0.012),there were no significant differences in having formal employment of mental workers (P =0.064),professional guidance,co-working with police officers,co-working with Disabled Persons' Federation,and the duration of working experience (all P ＞ 0.05).The results suggest that the capacity of mental health service in community levels is relatively weak in Chengdu,and the personnel training,public education and rehabilitation work of mental health need to be strengthened.