Community health profile with special emphasis on social environment and mental health

Abstract

The need for data on psychiatric morbidity, risk/protective factors and available resources for prevention is emphasised. Community health profile, or community diagnosis, is presented as a method to combine these types of data for the purpose of prevention. The scarcity of relevant data on psychiatric morbidity and risk/protective factors in existing databases is underlined, concluding that public statistics has to be supplemented by community surveys to make up a health profile with focus on mental health. A questionnaire for the collecting of relevant data is described. Among the data special emphasis is put on negative life events, long-lasting adversities, social support and social integration, in addition to sociodemo-graphic data and data on mental health and health service utilization. An example comparing the results from two communities is given.

Key Words:

• Community psychiatry
• Health profile
• Psychiatric prevention