Factors associated with quality of services for marginalized groups with mental health problems in 14 European countries

• Background:Different service characteristics are known to influence mental health care delivery. Much less isknown about the impact of contextual factors, such as the socioeconomic circumstances, on the provision of careto socially marginalized groups.The objectives of this work were to assess the organisational characteristics of services providing mental health carefor marginalized groups in 14 European capital cities and to explore the associations between organisationalquality, service features and country-level characteristics.Methods:617 services were assessed in two highly deprived areas in 14 European capital cities. A Quality Index ofService Organisation (QISO) was developed and applied across all sites. Service characteristics and country levelsocioeconomic indicators were tested and related with the Index using linear regressions and random interceptlinear models.Results:The mean (standard deviation) of the QISO score (minimum = 0; maximum = 15) varied from 8.63 (2.23) inIreland to 12.40 (2.07) in Hungary. The number of different programmes provided was the only service characteristicsignificantly correlated with the QISO (p < 0.05). The national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was inverselyassociated with the QISO. Nearly 15% of the variance of the QISO was attributed to country-level variables, withGDP explaining 12% of this variance.Conclusions:Socioeconomic contextual factors, in particular the national GDP are likely to influence theorganisational quality of services providing mental health care for marginalized groups. Such factors should beconsidered in international comparative studies. Their significance for different types of services should be exploredin further research.Keywords:Mental health services, Quality index of service organization, Socially marginalized groups,Multi-level analysis

Nyckelord

Mental health services

Quality index of service organization

Socially marginalized groups

Multi-level analysis

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