Mental Health Care Perspectives and Guarantees in Ecuador

Abstract

Introduction: Mental health is one of the main goals of the World Health Organization.

Objective: To identify individual perspective on mental health and the guarantees of population care.

Methods: A basic investigation was carried out, with a mixed approach and a descriptive scope consisting in the application of the questionnaire called Kognitive: Pertinence Study. The universe was made up of 381 people who attend private mental health services in the Metropolitan District of Quito. The sample consisted of 340 people.

Results: The average age of 53.21 years; there was a predominance of patients between 40 and 49 years (55%), of female sex (57.94%), single (56.18%) and of mixed race (94.12%). 55.59% did not have a stable job and 44.41% did not have health insurance. 69.41% of the people were unaware of the presence of a mental health services network (78.24%), 95.88% considered it important to have mental health coverage, and 93.24% showed interest in these services. The lack of financial resources (56.18%) and deficient information (36.47%) were mentioned as the most frequent causes for not attending mental health services.

Conclusions: The current socio-structural conditions do not guarantee an adequate mental health state of the population. It is necessary to train health professionals in this field as well as increase service networks and population’s access to these types of services.