Literature Collection

BACKGROUND: A key feature of South Africa's state health care strategy since 1994 has been the development and expansion of services towards integrated health care at primary health care level. Within the new system, emphasis has been on the integration of patients with mental health care needs with other patients where multiple health conditions and needs would be addressed simultaneously. As part of a larger study into mental health care in a predominantly rural district, we investigated the experiences of facility managers and mental health service users in rural clinics within the system of care. We were interested both in their views as to the advisability of the integrated model and the ways in which they managed any challenges they may have experienced within the system at local level. METHODS: Data were collected through once-off semi-structured interviews with facility managers and mental health care service users to gather qualitative information. Narratives were transcribed and translated into English. Transcriptions were imported to Atlas.ti 22 and analysed through Thematic Analysis. RESULTS: The integration of mental health care into routine primary health services poses challenges to treatment delivery and to patients who come for treatment. Our study also suggests resegregating mental health care as a possible solution to facilitate service delivery and treatment to service users. CONCLUSION: This research provided first insights into facility managers' and service users' views of integrated mental health care at primary health care level in this district. While mental health care services have been expanded and integrated into primary health care over recent years, the system may not have been as streamlined as in other parts of the country. The integration of mental health into primary health care can pose various challenges to facilities, health care providers, and mental health service users. Managers in these constrained circumstances have observed that resegregating mental health care from physical treatment, as in the past, may be deemed more effective for health care provision and reception. Generalised integration of mental health treatment with physical care should be approached with caution unless there is wider scale provisioning and greater organisational change.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of ever, current and heavy tobacco and alcohol use and their correlates among patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: The study was conducted in all of the 5 MMT clinics in Dehong Prefecture, China. PARTICIPANTS: 2121 (81.6%) eligible MMT participants were included in the study population. ANALYSIS: Ordinal logistic regression was used to estimate the ORs and their 95% CIs. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of ever, current and heavy smoking was 98.6%, 97.8% and 66.3%, respectively; while that of ever, current and hazardous alcohol drinking was 86.6%, 58.6% and 16.6%, respectively. Among HIV-infected participants, the proportions of those experiencing harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol on AIDS were 53.6% and 72.5%, respectively, and 16.9% and 49.3% had ever tried to quit after diagnosis with HIV. After adjusting for potential confounders, heavier smokers and more hazardous drinkers were more likely to be men, older and less educated. Ethnic minorities were less likely to heavily smoke, but more likely to engage in hazardous drinking. In addition, hazardous drinking was negatively associated with longer years of MMT and HIV infection. Moreover, heavier smoking (OR>/=2=2.08, 95% CI 1.16 to 3.73) and more hazardous drinking (OR>/=2=2.46, 95% CI 1.53 to 3.97) were positively associated with having multiple sexual partners, and both were positively associated with each other. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of tobacco and alcohol consumption was extraordinarily high among MMT participants in China, suggesting the urgent need of enhancing MMT patients' awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol consumption and implementing comprehensive education and effective intervention programmes.