Mental disorders of foreigners in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The mental health of foreigners is crucial for successful integration into their new home country. Hospitalization caused by mental disorder is regarded as an indicator of the gravity of the mental illness. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the hospitalizations of foreigners diagnosed with F00-F99, according to ICD-10 in all psychiatric facilities in the Czech Republic. The foreigners’ data were compared with the data of hospitalized Czech citizens. The methodology of choice included a retrospective study and secondary data analysis. The data were taken from the National Register of Hospitalized People, between 2007 and 2016 (10 years). The number of foreigners hospitalized for mental disorders in the Czech Republic is comparable to the Czech population. The index of masculinity of the hospitalized foreigners in all age cohorts is almost one third higher than in the Czech population. With respect to the patients hospitalized for mental disorder, the most frequent diagnosis for the Czech population is F102 (dependence syndrome) and for the foreigners F432 (adjustment disorder). 2014 was the year when the most Czech individuals were hospitalized with mental disorders; the number of hospitalized foreigners increased in 2016. The variations in the number of hospitalized people may be a result of the restructured psychiatric care and the rise of immigration from non-EU countries due to various reasons. The high level of masculinity index reveals that health-social care for foreigners needs to be adjusted with respect to gender. The social care for the foreigners should focus mainly on the reduction of risk factors, including unsuitable work conditions, discrimination, and insufficient social support.