Community Mental Health: Description of the Patients Concerning the Uls Guarda Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health Area

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2004) stresses the importance of home patient visiting as an answer to the epidemiologic, demographic, social and economic challenges that the world is facing.

The severe psychiatric patients are a risk group and often need domicile consultation and visiting. The domicile consultation approach favors the clinical, social and familiar support as well as promotes the integration and the recovering of the patients with mental problems, preventing the relapses and the hospital admissions of these patients.

This study, of descriptive nature, is based on the observation and consultation of 287 clinical processes of patients inserted in the domicile consultation program designed by the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Sousa Martins Hospital, ULS Guarda, which covers the 7th biggest district in Portugal (in a universe of 18), between July and September 2015.

The main goal of this study is to characterize and analyze the profile of the population, which is followed by the community mental health team of our Department, namely, the socio-demographic and clinic features, in order to improve the assistance practice in the future.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.