IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v69y2023i3p653-663.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquake on mental health of persons with severe mental illness: A survey study among people receiving community mental health care versus treatment as usual in Croatia

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Levaj
  • Sara Medved
  • Jasmina GrubiÅ¡in
  • Lea TomaÅ¡ić
  • Kristina Brozić
  • Laura Shields-Zeeman
  • Felix Bolinski
  • Martina Rojnic Kuzman

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the disruption of mental health services in most countries. Croatia has been developing and strengthening its mental health system, including the introduction of community mental health teams (CMHT) for persons with severe mental illness (SMI), whose implementation was ongoing during the pandemic through the RECOVER-E project. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the differences in mental health outcomes, perceived social support and healthcare utilization in the group of participants receiving treatment as usual (TAU group) compared to the group receiving TAU and additional care by the CMHT (CMHT group) during the COVID-19 pandemic and two earthquakes. Method: This is a cross-sectional survey administered among 90 participants with SMI at two time points: in May/June 2020 (first COVID-19 wave, earthquake) and in December 2020/January 2021 (second COVID-19 wave, earthquake). Results: A significantly larger proportion of participants from the CMHT group visited the general practitioners in both waves of COVID-19 (first wave: CMHT 72.1%, TAU 44.2%, p  = .009; second wave: CMHT 91.1%, TAU 64.1%, p  = .003), as well as psychiatric services in the second wave (CMHT 95.3%, TAU 79.5%, p  = .028). The use of long-acting injectables was also more frequent in the CMHT group ( p  = .039). Furthermore, analysis of the first wave showed higher perceived support of significant others ( p  = .004) in the CMHT group. We did not identify any differences in mental health outcomes between groups in either wave. Conclusions: While mental health outcomes did not differ between TAU and CMHT group, people in CMHT used services and treatments more frequently than those in TAU during the pandemic, which may indicate that CMHT services enable the continuity and accessibility of care for people with SMI under the circumstances where standard care is interruped (for example pandemic, disaster conditions).

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Levaj & Sara Medved & Jasmina GrubiÅ¡in & Lea TomaÅ¡ić & Kristina Brozić & Laura Shields-Zeeman & Felix Bolinski & Martina Rojnic Kuzman, 2023. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquake on mental health of persons with severe mental illness: A survey study among people receiving community mental health care versus treatment as usual ," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 69(3), pages 653-663, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:69:y:2023:i:3:p:653-663
    DOI: 10.1177/00207640221130966
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640221130966
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00207640221130966?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. Barrafrem, Kinga & Västfjäll, Daniel & Tinghög, Gustav, 2020. "Financial well-being, COVID-19, and the financial better-than-average-effect," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    2. Nina Haug & Lukas Geyrhofer & Alessandro Londei & Elma Dervic & Amélie Desvars-Larrive & Vittorio Loreto & Beate Pinior & Stefan Thurner & Peter Klimek, 2020. "Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(12), pages 1303-1312, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Niculaescu, Corina E. & Sangiorgi, Ivan & Bell, Adrian R., 2023. "Does personal experience with COVID-19 impact investment decisions? Evidence from a survey of US retail investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Tomasz Jałowiec & Henryk Wojtaszek, 2021. "Analysis of the RES Potential in Accordance with the Energy Policy of the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-33, September.
    3. Davide Tosi & Alessandro Siro Campi, 2021. "How Schools Affected the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Data Analysis for Lombardy Region, Campania Region, and Emilia Region," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-12, April.
    4. Marco Biagetti & Valentina Ferri, 2022. "Covid-19: the effects of the Italian red zones on mortality," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 76(3), pages 17-28, July-Sept.
    5. Hai-Anh H. Dang & Long T. Giang & Minh N. N. Do, 2021. "Building on Vietnam’s Recent COVID-19 Success: A Job-Focused Analysis of Individual Assessments on Their Finance and the Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Lennox, Janet & Reuge, Nicolas & Benavides, Francisco, 2021. "UNICEF’s lessons learned from the education response to the COVID-19 crisis and reflections on the implications for education policy," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Matthew Spiegel & Heather Tookes, 2021. "Business Restrictions and COVID-19 Fatalities [The immediate effect of COVID-19 policies on social distancing behavior in the United States]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5266-5308.
    8. Battisti, Michele & Maggio, Giuseppe, 2023. "Will the last be the first? School closures and educational outcomes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Biswas, Debajyoti & Alfandari, Laurent, 2022. "Designing an optimal sequence of non‐pharmaceutical interventions for controlling COVID-19," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(3), pages 1372-1391.
    10. Jain, Radhika & Dupas, Pascaline, 2021. "The effects of India’s COVID-19 lockdown on critical non-COVID health care and outcomes: evidence from a retrospective cohort analysis of dialysis patients," MPRA Paper 110213, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 12 Jan 2021.
    11. Tu, Ke & Chen, Shirley & Mesler, Rhiannon MacDonnell, 2023. "Policy stringency and the spread of COVID-19: The moderating role of culture and its implications on first responses," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Phu Nguyen Van & Thierry Blayac & Dimitri Dubois & Sebastien Duchene & Marc Willinger & Bruno Ventelou, 2021. "Designing acceptable anti-COVID-19 policies by taking into account individuals’ preferences: evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment," EconomiX Working Papers 2021-33, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    13. Sprengholz, Philipp & Siegers, Regina & Goldhahn, Laura & Eitze, Sarah & Betsch, Cornelia, 2021. "Good night: Experimental evidence that nighttime curfews may fuel disease dynamics by increasing contact density," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    14. Briscese, Guglielmo & Lacetera, Nicola & Macis, Mario & Tonin, Mirco, 2023. "Expectations, reference points, and compliance with COVID-19 social distancing measures," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Cassetti, Gabriele & Boitier, Baptiste & Elia, Alessia & Le Mouël, Pierre & Gargiulo, Maurizio & Zagamé, Paul & Nikas, Alexandros & Koasidis, Konstantinos & Doukas, Haris & Chiodi, Alessandro, 2023. "The interplay among COVID-19 economic recovery, behavioural changes, and the European Green Deal: An energy-economic modelling perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PC).
    16. Delis, Manthos D. & Iosifidi, Maria & Tasiou, Menelaos, 2021. "Efficiency of government policy during the COVID-19 pandemic," MPRA Paper 107046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Balarabe Yushau & Omega Ayuba Adon, 2024. "Availability and Adequacy of Social-Support During E-Learning in Some Selected Universities in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(5), pages 2432-2442, May.
    18. López-Mendoza, Héctor & González-Álvarez, María A. & Montañés, Antonio, 2024. "Assessing the effectiveness of international government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    19. Salvatore F. Pileggi, 2022. "Holistic Resilience Index: measuring the expected country resilience to pandemic," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4107-4127, December.
    20. Barrafrem, Kinga & Tinghög, Gustav & Västfjäll, Daniel, 2021. "Trust in the government increases financial well-being and general well-being during COVID-19," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).

    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:69:y:2023:i:3:p:653-663. 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.