IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v68y2022i2p324-333.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comparative study of two Mobile Mental Health Units in different catchment rural areas in Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Vaios Peritogiannis
  • Sofia Rousoudi
  • Theofanis Vorvolakos
  • Panagiota Gioti
  • Afroditi Gogou
  • Argiri Arre
  • Maria Samakouri

Abstract

Background: Mental healthcare service delivery in rural and remote areas in Greece is challenging due to socioeconomic and geographical reasons, and distant facilities. To address the needs of the underserved areas, the Greek state has launched a number of Mobile Mental Health Units (MMHUs). Aim: The objective of the present study was to explore the differences among two MMHUs, one being run by a university general hospital (MMHU UHA) and the other being run by a nongovernmental organization (MMHU I-T). Methods: The two MMHUs deliver services in rural areas of northeast and northwest Greece, respectively. Both MMHUs use the infrastructures of the primary healthcare system and have the potential for domiciliary visits. Results: Medical and nursing staff is much more in the MMHU UHA, whereas MMHU I-T has more psychologists, social workers and health visitors. Patients attended the MMHU I-T were significantly older than the patients attended the MMHU UHA (mean age 64.5 vs. 55.3 years) and the percentage of the elderly patients in treatment with the MMHU I-T (56.5%) is significantly higher than the corresponding percentage of the MMHU UHA (20%). The proportion of patients that received home-based care by the two MMHUs was almost identical. The percentage of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders that attended the MMHU UHA was significantly higher. Patients with affective disorders, anxiety disorders and organic brain disorders that attended the MMHU I-T were significantly more. Conclusions: Despite the similarities among the MMHUs in rural Greece, this study recorded some important differences. The differences in staffing may be accounted for by the availability of resources. The differences in the patients’ population may be explained by the fact that the MMHU UHA was designed from its beginning to treat patients with severe mental illnesses, mainly psychoses, and it accepts loss of referrals within the general hospital’s network of psychiatric services. The MMHU I-T is an independent, locally based service that may be better perceived as an expansion of the primary care system. The results of the study could inform service practice and mental health policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Vaios Peritogiannis & Sofia Rousoudi & Theofanis Vorvolakos & Panagiota Gioti & Afroditi Gogou & Argiri Arre & Maria Samakouri, 2022. "A comparative study of two Mobile Mental Health Units in different catchment rural areas in Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(2), pages 324-333, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:68:y:2022:i:2:p:324-333
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764020985896
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764020985896
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764020985896?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vaios Peritogiannis & Panagiota Nikolaou, 2020. "Functioning in community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in rural Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(2), pages 111-117, March.
    2. Vaios Peritogiannis & Panagiota Gioti & Afroditi Gogou & Maria Samakouri, 2020. "Decrease of hospitalizations and length of hospital stay in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders treated in a community mental health service in rural Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(7), pages 693-699, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aikaterini Grammeniati & Alexandra Mantziou & Vaios Peritogiannis, 2024. "First-contact patients with a community mental health service in rural Greece: A 3-year prospective study of treatment attendance and its co-relations," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(2), pages 355-363, March.
    2. Vaios Peritogiannis & Ioannis Drakatos & Panagiota Gioti & Aikaterini Garbi, 2023. "Vaccination rates against COVID-19 in patients with severe mental illness attending community mental health services in rural Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(1), pages 208-215, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vaios Peritogiannis & Maria Samakouri, 2021. "Research on psychotic disorders in rural areas: Recent advances and ongoing challenges," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(8), pages 1046-1057, December.
    2. Vaios Peritogiannis & Ioannis Drakatos & Panagiota Gioti & Aikaterini Garbi, 2023. "Vaccination rates against COVID-19 in patients with severe mental illness attending community mental health services in rural Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(1), pages 208-215, February.
    3. Kyung-Hwan Park & Eun-Sook Park & Sung-Mi Jo & Mi-Hui Seo & Young-Ok Song & Sun-Joo Jang, 2021. "Effects of a Short Emotional Management Program on Inpatients with Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-13, May.
    4. Manuel Rojas & Maite Barrios & Juana Gómez-Benito & Nadezhda Mikheenkova & Sergey Mosolov, 2021. "Functioning Problems in Persons with Schizophrenia in the Russian Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Vaios Peritogiannis & Panagiota Gioti & Afroditi Gogou & Maria Samakouri, 2020. "Decrease of hospitalizations and length of hospital stay in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders treated in a community mental health service in rural Greece," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(7), pages 693-699, November.
    6. Vaios Peritogiannis & Afroditi Gogou & Maria Samakouri, 2020. "Very long-term outcome of psychotic disorders," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(7), pages 633-641, November.
    7. Aikaterini Grammeniati & Alexandra Mantziou & Vaios Peritogiannis, 2024. "First-contact patients with a community mental health service in rural Greece: A 3-year prospective study of treatment attendance and its co-relations," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(2), pages 355-363, March.
    8. Maria Bakola & Vaios Peritogiannis & David Stuckler & Konstantina Soultana Kitsou & Philippos Gourzis & Thomas Hyphantis & Eleni Jelastopulu, 2023. "Who is coercively admitted to psychiatric wards? Epidemiological analysis of inpatient records of involuntary psychiatric admissions to a University General Hospital in Greece for the years 2008–201," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(2), pages 267-276, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:68:y:2022:i:2:p:324-333. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.