DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) aims at expanding community-based mental health care services being provided at specialised facilities, said a senior official.
Efforts have also been undertaken to create more awareness and understanding of mental health to dispel the misconceptions prevailing in society, Iain Tulley, Chief Executive Officer of HMC’s Mental Health Service told The Peninsula yesterday.
“Hamad Medical Corporation provides a comprehensive set of services for a wide range of mental health conditions. Some of the more complex and serious conditions that require acute care can be treated in our specialist hospital,” said Tulley.
“However, our aim is to expand our community-based services delivered in facilities such as Enaya Continuing Care Center, which provides professional care in a more home-like setting for children and adolescents, adults and older adults. We also work closely with the Geriatric and Home Health Care Service teams to provide relevant care to people with dementia-related symptoms,” he added.
Enaya Continuing Care Center 2 in Muaither is a multi-disciplinary outpatient service catering to children and adolescents up to the age of 18.
World Mental Health Day was marked yesterday under the theme ‘Dignity in Mental Health -Psychological and Mental Health First Aid for All.’ In 2013, a research by Ministry of Public Health found that one in five people in Qatar have a mental disorder. Also, 20 percent of people seeking help are diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, 19 percent with major depressive disorder and 13 percent with other psychiatric disorders.
HMC’s Mental Health Service is currently being improved and developed in line with the National Mental Health Strategy to be closer in line with international best practice standards.
HMC’s experienced mental health professionals were part of the core team who worked on creating the strategy. The strategy’s vision ‘Good mental health and wellbeing for the people of Qatar, supported by integrated mental health services with access to the right care, at the right time and in the right place’ is the basic of HMC’s Mental Health Service delivery goals, said Tulley. “This includes comprehensive training for medical residents and newly qualified psychiatrists as well as our nursing team and other allied health professionals which will give people access to a more comprehensive service,” he said.
Generally patients with mental health problems are referred through the Primary Health Care doctors to a specialist working within HMC’s Mental Health Service.
“But we also have Mental Health Service liaison teams working in our general hospitals and these teams are trained to assess if a patient comes in with symptoms that might be attributed to mental health related issues,” said Tulley.
