engleski

A new instrument to assess health care and social interventions for patients with posttraumatic stress

To develop a new user-friendly mapping instrument, applicable in deifferent national and local contexts, to gain better understanding of the utilization, need and outcome of health care and community based interventions for people suffering from post-traumatic stress. The new instrument has been developed in the frame of the CONNECT multi-center research project on "Components, organisation, costs and outcomes of health and community based interventions for people with post-traumatic stress following war and conflict in the Balkans". It builds on standardised mapping instruments for mental health services such as the European Service Mapping Schedule or the International Classification of Mental health Care, integrating non-mental health care and community providers and initiatives. It was developed through a Delphi process consulatation among CONNECT researchers, belonging to seven different ex-Yugoslavian and EU members Countries. The draft-version of the instrument used in a pilot study is composed of the following nine categories: primary Care, Mental Health care, Specialist physical health care, Housing, Employment and training, Leisure and social support, Pension and financial benefits, Legal support, Information and advocacy. 15 sub-headings complement the principal categories. Results of the pilot study will be briefly presented. In its definitive version the new instrument will be used to map services in a defined region and to identify interventions that individuals have received in a given period of time. Furthermore, it can be used to identify changes over time and differences between regions.

community interventions; posttraumatic stress; war-related trauma

10.1016/S0924-9338(05)80148-8