Assessment of the state of services in the field of mental health in Slovenia

Mental health is becoming one of the priorities for the European health care policies due to a high lifetime prevalence of mental disorders. Cost- benefit studies on mental health facilities are needed to improve planning and efficacious resource use. The European Service Mapping Schedule (ESMS) is so far the only standardized and internationally applicable instrument for description and classification of mental health services and for measuring the intensity of service use. The aim of our study was to examine availability and utilization of mental health services in the Slovene regions in 2020 by using the ESMS methodology.

Slovenian translation of the ESMS was used for mapping services in Slovene statistical regions. All services meeting inclusion criteria were invited to participate in the study. A reference person from every service provided information about service features mostly by telephone. Results regarding utilization of services across regions were correlated with sociodemographic indicators from European Socio-Demographic Schedule (ESDS).  The results of the current survey on mental health services will be compared with the results of a survey already conducted with the ESMS instrument in Slovenia in 2008.