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Targeting mental health services to severe mental illness1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Graham Thornicroft
Graham Thornicroft*
Affiliation:
PRiSM (Psychiatric Research in Service Measurement), Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
Indirizzo per la corrispondenza: Dr. G. Thornicroft, PRiSM (Psychiatric Research in Service Measurement), Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AZ (England). Fax (+44) 171-277.1462.
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Summary

This paper argues within the mental health services that people who are most disabled by mental illness, the severely mentally ill (SMI), should be afforded the highest priority, and that services should be provided in relation to need. For this to occur the priority groups need first to be defined. Second, if a service wishes to provide for all prevalent cases of people suffering from severe mental illness, then a systematic method of recording local information about these people is required, and this may draw upon information about patients who are in contact with health services, social services, family health services and who contact voluntary sector and other agencies. One approach to estimating the need for services for people with SMI is by using indicative norms for service requirements. Finally, managerial methods are proposed to monitor how far targeting services to the SMI occurs in clinical practice.

Keywords

severe mental illnessservice evaluationoutcome measuresdisturbi mentali gravivalutazione dei servizivalutazione dell'esito.
Type
Articoli
Information
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , Settembre-Dicembre 1995 , pp. 181 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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Footnotes

1

Based on a IRGASD (Italian Research Group for Affective and Schizophrenic Disorders) lecture, organised by the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of Verona, and delivered in Verona on November 28, 1994. IRGASD activities carried out under the auspices of Dr. Paul Janssen Medical Institute, are supported by Janssen-Cilag.

References

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