Based on surveys performed in 127 of the country’s municipalities, we have estimated that there is a need for 1780 new man-labour years in municipal psychiatric health work, whereof 275 of the man-labour years, the experts in the municipalities claim, should be psychologists. Therefore it is not enough to only go in for more psychologists in the municipalities. Among other things there is also a need for an increase in man-labour years to staff the accommodation for people with mental disorders.
In our findings we have seen that it is hard for the municipalities to make preventive work such as various activity services a priority. The current trend in municipal psychiatric health work is that the man-labour years devoted to these kinds of services are diminishing. We therefore recommend to consider earmarking governmental resources for prevention through different activity services to adults (day-care centre, services in leisure time and cultural activities accommodated the target group), as well as early-on efforts directed to children and young people who are at a risk of developing mental disorders.
The report concludes that the right path to take still is speedy and efficient treatment in specialised services with a fully developed municipal service, as well as the right use of specialist competence in the municipal services. Most likely, the greatest potential lies in the patient acquiring services from the specialist health care service and the municipalities at the same time. Some make it work and the result then is cooperation, stability and efficiency in the services in the sense that the most suitable participant holds the task. The greatest potential for development probably lies in the area between the service levels.
