Functioning of the various forms of mental health care in Poland in the years 2010-2013. Organizational, economic and financial aspects.

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to verify the hypothesis about the high growth rate of expenditure on the provision of mental health in the past few years. High dynamics of the expenditure increase will result in the development of a model of community psychiatry and a gradual move away from the hospital psychiatric treatment towards mental health care in the open system, including the community one. This research is based on data on the implementation of services for mental health care in the framework of agreements with the National Health Fund, which has been collected in the NFZ IT system. Some information is from 2010, which was adopted as the base date for the implementation of the principles of the National Mental Health Program in 2011. The data from the implementation of individual benefits in 2013 were used for the comparison. In addition, other selected organizational, economic and financial elements of the psychiatric care system were analyzed. In 2013, compared to 2010, increased the number of mental health care organizations: outpatient mental health clinics (an increase of 37 clinics), outpatient mental health day hospital wards (an increase of 25 wards) and community psychiatric treatment teams (an increase of 74 teams). The largest increase in the value of contracts (approx. 150%) was related to community treatment teams. Between 2010 and 2013 there was an increase in the value of cleared contracts in psychiatric care, in general and in each of the three forms of psychiatric care (i.e., in day wards, outpatient mental health clinics and in community teams). The highest increase in investments included community treatment teams, to a lesser extent day wards and outpatient clinics. The adopted organizational, economic and financial solutions in the mental health care system are in line with the objectives of the National Mental Health Program, including the assumed structure of Mental Health Centers.