Effects of community mental health service on mental health of elderly community residents

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-6574.2015.02.015

Abstract：Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of community mental health services on the mental health of elderly community residents in China .Methods Elderly residents (1431)were randomly selected and assigned to either an intervention (692) or control group (739) .The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ -9) ,Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 -item scale (GAD -7) ,and General Well-Being Schedule (GWB) were used to evaluate the mental health of the subjects at baseline and at the end of 6th and 12th months ,respectively .Results (1)Intra-group comparison of the GWB scores indicated that in the observation group ,all the 5 dimensions had significant statistical differences (P < 0 .01)except the control of the emotions and behavior (F= 0 .32 ,P= 0 .63) ,while in the control group ,only worries about health (F = 4 .33 ,P = 0 .02) and relaxation and tension (anxiety ) (F =154.26 ,P< 0 .01) had significant statistical differences .(2)Inter-group comparison of the GWB scores indicated that at the end of the 6th month ,the observation group had significantly better scores in dimen‐sions of worries about health ,doldrums or pleasant mood (both P < 0 .01) .At the end of the 12th month ,scores of satisfaction and interest in life ,worries about health ,doldrums or pleasant mood ,and relaxation and tension (anxiety) were significantly better in the observation group than the control group (all P < 0 .01) .(3)In the observation group ,from base line to the ends of the 6th and 12th months ,the totalPHQ -9score(F= 1603.27)andtotalGAD-7score(F= 653.68)weredecliningwhilethetotal GWB score (F= 653 .68)was increasing ,and these were significant differences between before and after the interventions (all P < 0 .01) .However ,in the control group ,there was no significant difference in these scores (F = 0 .42 ,P= 0 .57;F= 1 .29 ,P= 0 .28 ;F= 3 .69 ,P= 0 .06) .(4)There was no signifi‐cant differences on the scores of PHQ -9 ,GAD -7 ,and GWB found between the two groups (P >0.05) at the baseline ,but there were significant differences on all these scores between the two groups at the ends of the 6th and 12th months (P< 0 .01) .Conclusions This large-scale study showed that com‐munity mental health services could effectively improve the mental health of elderly residents ,mental health education is one of the effective ways .Prolonged community mental health services could result in even better outcomes .