A preliminary report on the implementation of the European Service and Mapping Schedule (ESMS) in Slovenia to map preventive and promotion activities in mental health.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention can reduce the risk for mental and behavioural disorders and decreased social welfare and health costs. The aim of the present study was to map and analyse prevention and promotion activities and programmes in the mental health area in Slovenia. SUBJECTS: The selection of services for a study was performed using the database of the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services, internet and other accessible sources METHODS: The Slovenian translation of ESMS was used for mapping the services in the mental health area. RESULTS: The initial sample from above mentioned sources contained 84 services working in the mental health area in 12 Slovenian statistical regions. At present 516 services were contacted and 172 did not comply with inclusion criteria. The 162 services from all 12 Slovenian statistical geographical regions have been mapped and their activities and characteristics analysed. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of the approaches to mental disorder prevention revealed that the most frequent approaches were selective primary prevention in 27.9% and tertiary prevention in 28.2% of cases.