Main challenges and opportunities related to the implementation of mental health promotion in the Cz

1
Main challenges and opportunities related to the
implementation of mental health promotion in the
Czech Republic

• Vladimír Kebza, National Institute of Public
  Health, Prague

2
Starting points

• Mental health and well-being as crucial points
  for the quality of life and health status, and
• (esp. in the Czech Republic and other transition
  countries) also as components of social stability
  by means of their share in social cohesiveness
  and contribution in social capital and through it
  in the economic development of the society.

3
Primary care and prevention

• One of supporting circumstances is accessibility
  of primary care in a net of psychological and
  educational consulting centres in Bohemian,
  Moravian, and Silesian districts/regions
• These centres have an important role in early
  recognition of mental problems/disorders/diseases
  and could connect and/or provide an indispensable
  support and help

4
Transformation of psychiatric hospitals

• Czech Republic has about 10 270 000
  inhabitants. The GDP was 2 407.3 billion of Czech
  Crowns.The health care budget was 7.0 of the
  GDP (Health Statistics, Yearbook 2002, 2003).
  Just about 3.9 of the health care budget was
  allocated into mental health care.
• Since 1995 about 80 of psychiatric outpatient
  clinics have been in private hands. There is free
  access to these specialists, who have no
  catchment areas.
• The number of psychiatric beds was
  substantially reduced in the last decades (14/100
  000 in 1990 and 11.1/100 000 in 2002). However,
  in 2002 we had 21 psychiatric hospitals with 10
  045 beds (four of those hospitals are specialized
  in child psychiatry and have a total of 368 beds)
  and 33 psychiatric units in general hospitals
  with 1546 beds (Health Statistics, 2004). Every
  psychiatric hospital has a catchment area of
  about 1 million inhabitants.

5
Reduction of the stigmatization

• Within the possible ways of the stigmatization
  reduction we should to stress
• Implementation of a system of educational courses
  for general practitioners who subsequently assume
  a part of the responsibility for early and
  correct diagnosis and therapy of some mental
  problems and disorders, by which the risk of
  stigmatization would be lowered notably - e.g.
  Gotland study (Rihmer, Rutz, Pihlgren, 1995) and
  our experience with the Czech GP education
  programme for detection, diagnosis, therapy and
  prevention of depressive disorders (Kebza, Paclt,
  2002).
• Activities of NGOs in the sphere of
  destigmatization