Pathway of Patient to Amanuel Specialized Mental Health Hospital: A Facility based Cross Sectional Study
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Date
2021-11
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Introduction:-Pathway to care is a process in which a patient with mental illness goes through
before seeking help from mental health professional. According to the Goldberg-Huxley model
of the pathway psychiatric care in order to get visit to psychiatrists it should have to pass three
filters starting from community setting.
Back ground:- The Pathway the patient influenced by many one of them is distribution of
psychiatric care facility. In developed country the first focal point in pathway is General
practitioner which looks identical to the Goldberg and Huxley model. In low- and middle-income
countries (LMICs) most of the patients with mental illness seek treatment from the traditional
and religious modality of treatment. A meta-analysis of pathway studies in sub-Saharan Africa
indicates approximately equal initial choice of biomedical (49.2%) and alternative (48.1%)
mental healthcare pathways. A study done on 2003 at ASMH also showed that less than half of
mental illness patients directly contacted a mental hospital, and the median delay between onset
of illness and arrival at the psychiatric hospital was 38 weeks. Other two studies done in
Northern and South west Ethiopia showed than the median delay was 52 weeks. Objective:- The objective of the study was to measure time of delay to reach Amanuel hospital
from the onset of symptom to getting care. The effect of sociodemographic factors on the
pathway to way care. It also tried to assess the associated factors which affect the delay to
seeking modern psychiatric care. Generally it used to see the change that occurred in the past 18
years after implementation of different intervention on development of psychiatric care.
Method:- Directly data was collected from patient or attendant of patient who visited Amanuel
Emergency and outpatient OPD for the first time from16th, 2021 –July 31st2021 with WHO
encounter form. Once the data was collected it was exported to Excel spreadsheet and cleaned
and checked for error and missing variable and, then it was exported to SPSS version 26 and
descriptive analysis was done. Result:-The study found the median delay to get psychiatric care at AMSH was 20 week where
as in any modern institution who gave psychiatric service was 14 weeks. The study also found
that young or old Age, being married or divorced , elementary or secondary school level of
education, first point of care to traditional healer or religious treatment were predictors of delay
to get psychiatric care.
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Keywords
Psychiatric care, Mental illness, Mental health professional