With the introduction of the community-based mental health service model in Turkey, community mental health centers provide services to individuals with severe mental illness with a multidisciplinary approach. In addition to regular medication treatment, interventions such as psychoeducation, family education, social skills training and group therapies aim to improve symptoms and increase functionality.
Teams working in community mental health centers evaluate people in their living environment with their own applications or with mobile teams, thus observing their treatment compliance and living conditions. The process of reintegration into society is carried out with activities (handicrafts, music, kitchen skills, psychodrama) aimed at increasing the social skills of patients in our center. In addition, with inter-institutional cooperation, social adaptation is ensured by raising public awareness, combating stigmatization, and working on problems related to social, economic, housing and business life in addition to physical and mental treatment in line with care plans that include individual-specific needs of registered patients.
What is the Purpose of Community Mental Health Centers?
The aim is to monitor and treat patients with chronic severe mental illness in the environment where they live. In this way, it is aimed for patients to live together with the society without being excluded and ostracized.
Community Mental Health Center Who can apply?
According to the directive, individuals with chronic mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and similar psychotic disorders and mood disorders that lead to disability due to their devastating effects on cognitive, managerial and social skills can apply.
Who works in Community Mental Health Centers?
According to the Directive on Community Mental Health Centers, which was put into force with the Ministerial Approval dated 06/03/2014 and numbered 9453; In the center; mental health and diseases specialist, social worker, psychologist, nurse, health officer, occupational therapist, medical secretary, security guard and educators depending on the planned activities (such as painting teacher, handicraft teacher, music teacher and sports teacher).
What is done in Community Mental Health Centers?
Follow-up Procedures:
To follow up the processes such as whether the patients who attend the center use their medication regularly, whether they use it at the right time and dose, and whether there are side effects,
Contacting patients and/or their relatives who cannot attend the center and visiting them at home, planning their pharmacological treatment during these visits and trying to convince the patient to attend the center,
To ensure that the patient who flares up for any reason during follow-up at the center or at home and who has the potential to harm himself/herself or his/her environment is admitted to an inpatient psychiatric clinic by contacting the relevant units.
Education:
Providing psychoeducation to patients and their relatives,
Providing social skills training to appropriate patients and practicing in the community.
Therapy:
Planning occupational areas suitable for patients' interests and personality traits and programming their participation in occupational therapies,
Organizing open/closed group therapies with appropriate patients.
✓ Other Functions:
Raising public awareness and anti-stigmatization activities through local governments, local print and visual media.
To liaise with relevant institutions to respond to the needs for hospitalization, care and workplace needs identified during the studies.