Developing a tool for mapping adult mental health care provision in Europe: the REMAST research protocol and its contribution to better integrated care.
BACKGROUND
Mental health care is a critical area to better understand integrated care and to pilot the different components of the integrated care model. However, there is an urgent need for better tools to compare and understand the context of integrated mental health care in Europe.


METHODS
The REMAST tool (REFINEMENT MApping Services Tool) combines a series of standardised health service research instruments and geographical information systems (GIS) to develop local atlases of mental health care from the perspective of horizontal and vertical integrated care. It contains five main sections: (a) Population Data; (b) the Verona Socio-economic Status (SES) Index; (c) the Mental Health System Checklist; (d) the Mental Health Services Inventory using the DESDE-LTC instrument; and (e) Geographical Data.


RESULTS
The REMAST tool facilitates context analysis in mental health by providing the comparative rates of mental health service provision according to the availability of main types of care; care placement capacity; workforce capacity; and geographical accessibility to services in the local areas in eight study areas in Austria, England, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Romania and Spain.


CONCLUSIONS
The outcomes of this project will facilitate cooperative work and knowledge transfer on mental health care to the different agencies involved in mental health planning and provision. This project would improve the information to users and society on the available resources for mental health care and system thinking at the local level by the different stakeholders. The techniques used in this project and the knowledge generated could eventually be transferred to the mapping of other fields of integrated care.
Mental Health Policy Unit, Brain and Mind Centre, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia.
Luis
L
Salvador-Carulla
Section of Psychiatry, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Francesco
F
Amaddeo
PSICOST Research Association, University of Loyola Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain.
Mencia R
MR
Gutiérrez-Colosía
Section of Psychiatry, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Damiano
D
Salazzari
Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Cadiz, Cádiz, Spain.
Juan Luis
JL
Gonzalez-Caballero
Section of Psychiatry, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Italy; Department of Neuroepidemiology, University of Bordeaux, Talence, France; INSERM, U897, Neuroepidemiology Team, F-33000, Bordeaux, France.
Ilaria
I
Montagni
Section of Psychiatry, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Federico
F
Tedeschi
Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London, London, UK; Section of Psychiatry, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Gaia
G
Cetrano
Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne, Inserm, ECEVE, U1123, F-75 010; AP-HP, URC-Eco, Paris, France.
Karine
K
Chevreul
Department of Health Research, SINTEF Technology and Society, Trondheim, Norway.
Jorid
J
Kalseth
IMEHPS.Research, Vienna, Austria.
Gisela
G
Hagmair
IMEHPS.Research, Vienna, Austria.
Christa
C
Straßmayr
Personal Social Services Research Unit, LSE Health and Social Care, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
A-La
AL
Park
Institute for Economic Forecasting Bucharest, Romania.
Raluca
R
Sfetcu
Department of Mental Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland.
Kristian
K
Wahlbeck
Vice-chancellor for research, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Sevilla, Spain.
Carlos
C
Garcia-Alonso
evidence-informed policy; health service research; integrated care; mental health care