Menculini, G;
Tortorella, A;
Albert, U;
Carmassi, C;
Carrà, G;
Cirulli, F;
Dell'Osso, B;
... Sampogna, G; + view all
(2021)
Access to Mental Health Care during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Results from the COMET Multicentric Study.
Brain Sciences
, 11
(11)
, Article 1413. 10.3390/brainsci11111413.
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented public health emergency, with consequences at the political, social, and economic levels. Mental health services have been called to play a key role in facing the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the general population. In the period March-May 2020, an online survey was implemented as part of the Covid Mental Health Trial (COMET), a multicentric collaborative study carried out in Italy, one of the Western countries most severely hit by the pandemic. The present study aims to investigate the use of mental health resources during the first wave of the pandemic. The final sample consisted of 20,712 participants, mainly females (N = 14,712, 71%) with a mean age of 40.4 ± 14.3 years. Access to mental health services was reported in 7.7% of cases. Among those referred to mental health services, in 93.9% of cases (N = 1503 subjects) a psychological assessment was requested and in 15.7% of cases (N = 252) a psychiatric consultation. People reporting higher levels of perceived loneliness (OR 1.079, 95% CI 1.056-1.101, p < 0.001), practicing smart-working (OR 1.122, 95% CI 0.980-1.285, p = 0.095), using avoidant (OR 1.586, 95% CI 1.458-1.725, p < 0.001) and approach (OR 1.215, 95% CI 1.138-1.299, p < 0.001) coping strategies more frequently accessed mental health services. On the other hand, having higher levels of perceived social support (OR 0.833, 95% CI 0.795-0.873, p < 0.001) was associated with a reduced probability to access mental health services. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a new threat to the mental health and well-being of the general population, therefore specific strategies should be implemented to promote access to mental healthcare during the pandemic and afterwards.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Access to Mental Health Care during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Results from the COMET Multicentric Study |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/brainsci11111413 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111413 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, access to care, lockdown, loneliness, mental health services, psychiatric care, stress |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10140269 |
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