Effectiveness of Community Mental Health Service in Oman: A Pilot Study

Abstract

In Oman the Community Mental Health Service (CMHS) was implemented in 2013. CMHS includes home based services such as outreach team, including, crisis response, recovery team and rehabilitation. The community mental health program in Oman is multidisciplinary, however no study has yet evaluated the effectiveness of community mental health in Oman. Aims: A pilot study was a weighted and measurable outcome of the community service program in decreasing relapse, length of hospital stay and the financial sequelae of relapse of the service provided. Objective: was to compare readmission rate, length of stay and total hospital cost per admission for the patients before and after enrolment to the CMHS program. Results: In this study there is a statistically significant difference between number of relapses before and after enrolments to community services. The mean number of relapses decreased after enrolmentto CMHS and the decreases mean cost per admission for the patients after enrolment to the community program. Decrease in number of admissions among patients enrolled on CMHS was from (M 2.68 SD 2.76) to (M 1.51 SD 2.5) withP value 0.001 . Duration of stay also decreased from (179.83 SD 471.2 day) to (61.62 SD 102.14 day) with P value approximately <P=0.01 indicating high statistical significance. which reflects also on the cost of care which dropped from (17900.83 SD 47100.2 OMR) to (6100.62 SD 10200.14 OMR. Further demographic variable results showed that males, illiterate, never been employed, single and divorced get benefits from CMHS and schizophrenia. < 10 years of illness and good family support got more benefits compared to other diseases Conclusion: CMHS in Oman is effective in decreasing relapse rate and cost. Key words: Community Mental Health Service, Oman