Comparison of access resources to psychiatric support for groups of mentally sane and abnormal people

The article describes individual resources of the population providing access to psychiatric services, in terms of assessment of ill and mentally sane people. The ground for study was based on the data from Budgetary Institution of Health Service “Vologda region neurologic treatment centre No. 1” (Cherepovets). The scope of observation covered 368 people. Among them 38,4% received in-patient and 61,6% received out-patient treatment, which, in general, corresponds to the existing referrals of patients between the in-patient and out-patient sectors in the psychiatric service support of the region. The comparison group was represented by 399 mentally sane people. A specially developed statistical “Map of studying social-psychological portrait of psychiatric services’ consumers” was used as a tool for conducting the research, which was validated during the pilot study. The results were electronically databased and statistically processed with the help of the application program package SPSS ver. 17 and WinPEPI (calculation of 95% confidence intervals (CI) by Fisher’s method. To define the presence of correlations between the categorical variables, Pearson’s chi-squared test was used. To define the constraint force, Cramer’s V was used.The factors are revealed that decrease personal abilities to use psychiatric services, and as a result, restricting personal resources to support and restore mental health. Specific attention is given to studying the financial component in using the psychiatric services, stating the inequality in gaining access to dedicated medical care for certain social groups and subgroups under the condition of a transformational economy. It was proved that the abnormalities in the mental status of individuals increase the risk of economic marginalization, lowering their social and economic status, and as a result limit the possibilities to use psychiatric services. The consequence leads to the intensification of inequality regarding access of different social groups to psychiatric medical care, being vital to support and restore not only of psychic but also of social health

Mental health · Mental illness · Mentally ill · Psychiatry · Family Caregiving in Mental Illness · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Mental Health Treatment and Access · Psychology