Evaluation of community mental health service among urban residents in different areas of Chongqing city

Objective To evaluate the efficiency of community mental health service among urban residents in Chongqing and to provide the basis for constructing urban community mental health service system.Methods Totally 1 340 urban residents of 12 districts or counties in Chongqing city were interviewed with a self-made questionnaire.Results Among the participants, there were 471 (35.15%) from main urban area, 461 (34.40%) from western area, and 408 (30.45%) from the Three Gorges area.The total score for community mental health service was 85.51±20.42, 78.37±24.54, and 75.5±17.74 among the residents of main urban area, western area, and the Three Gorges area, respectively.The total scroe, the scores of service efficiency and service resource evaluated by the residents of main urban were significantly higher than those by the residents of the Three Gorges(P<0.001 or P<0.05).There were significant differences in evaluation scores between there sidents of different gender and different education level(P<0.001 or P<0.05).There were 66.70% of the residents preferring to relatives or friends, 45.60% to community mental health service, 39.80% to psychology clinic of general hospital, 33.90% to private consultant clinic, and 8.10% to mental hospital for help of mental health problems, respectively.The percentage of the participants considering governmental support to mental health service in policy, funding, facilities, and propaganda was 69.20%, 68.40%, 59.60%, and 57.90%, respectively.There were 43.1% of there sidents considering that the government should pay all the fund to carry out community mental health service.Conclusion Community mental health service can be accepted by urban residents.The municipal government should play a vital role in policy, institution, funding in effective community mental health service.