 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Shula Minsky, EdD, Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson medical School & UMDNJ-UBHC, 671 Hoes Lane P.O. Box 1392, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1392, 732-235-5003, minsky@cmhc.umdnj.edu, Edna Kamis-Gould, PhD, Deparment of Psychiatry, University of Pensylvania, 3535 Market St , #3007, Philadelphia, PA PA19104, Betty Vreeland, MSN, APRN, Partners for Excellence in Psychiatry, UMDNJ-UBHC, 151 Centennial Ave. Suite 1500, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1392, Beatrix Roemheld-Hamm, MD, PhD, Dept of Family Medicine, UMDNJ-RWJMS, Monument Square, 317 George St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901, Lisa Debilio, PhD; LPT, Private Prcatice, 1717 Central Ave., Highland Park, NJ 08904, and Michael Gara, PhD, Deparment of Psychiatry, UMDNJ-RWJMS and UBHC, 671 Hoes Lane P.O. Box 1392, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1392.
Persons suffering from severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) also tend to have co-morbid physical illnesses, often untreated. To date, extant empirical studies relating SPMI to physical health care needs tacitly assume that mental illness is a more or less homogeneous cluster. Alternatively, it is assumed that diagnostic grouping may be useful grouping/predictive factor in this context. In this study we related a different classification of persons diagnosed with any mental illness to primary health care needs. This classification, developed by the first two authors and others at the NJ Division of Mental Health Services, is based on the severity of functional impairment and its duration, and consists of four, mutually exclusive, groupings. (Severe & persistent; persistent; severe; and mild & moderate.) We hypothesised that both primary health care needs and the ability to negotiate the primary health care system are different in the four CRG groups. Two sets of data were collected, pertaining to: 1. The CRG classification outlined above. 2. Primary health care needs. The clients in the sample were classified according to the CRG system, and were also assessed with respect to the following measures: a. MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF36), b. An adaptation of a symptom checklist used in the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), combined with a self-report health history, c. Chart review, and d. Brief medical history and physical assessment (H&P). Results relating the CRG to primary healthcare needs will be presented. Implications for providing primary health care to the SPMI population will be discussed.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Mental Health Services, Primary Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.