{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T04:32:25Z","timestamp":1769747545818,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"Scientific Scholar","issue":"04","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,3]],"date-time":"2019-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1567468800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":702,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title><jats:p>Introduction: Patients living in rural and remote areas may have limited access to mental healthcare due to lack of facilities and socioeconomic reasons, and this is the case of rural areas in Eastern Europe countries. In Greece, community mental health service delivery in rural areas has been implemented through the development of the Mobile Mental Health Units (MMHUs). Methods: We present a 10-year account of the operation of the MMHU of the prefectures of Ioannina and Thesprotia (MMHU I-T) and report on the impact of the service on mental health delivery in the catchment area. The MMHU I-T is a multidisciplinary community mental health team which delivers services in rural and mountainous areas of Northwest Greece. Results: The MMHU I-T has become an integral part of the local primary care system and is well known to the population of the catchment area. By the end of 2016, the majority of patients (60%) were self-referred or family-referred, compared to 24% in the first 2 years. Currently, the number of active patients is 293 (mean age 63 years, 49.5% are older adults), and the mean caseload for each member of the team is 36.6. A significant proportion of patients (28%) receive care with regular domiciliary visits, and the provision of home-based care was correlated with the age of the patients. Within the first 2 years of operation of the MMHU I-T hospitalizations of treatment, engaged patients were reduced significantly by 30.4%, whereas the treatment engagement rates of patients with psychotic disorders were 67.2% in 5 years. Conclusions: The MMHU I-T and other similar units in Greece are a successful paradigm of a low-cost service which promotes mental health in rural, remote, and deprived areas. This model of care may be informative for clinical practice and health policy given the ongoing recession and health budget cuts. It suggests that rural mental healthcare may be effectively delivered by integrating generic community mental health mobile teams into the primary care system.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4103\/jnrp.jnrp_142_17","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,15]],"date-time":"2017-11-15T10:35:52Z","timestamp":1510742152000},"page":"556-561","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Mental Healthcare Delivery in Rural Greece: A 10-year Account of a Mobile Mental Health Unit"],"prefix":"10.25259","volume":"08","author":[{"given":"Vaios","family":"Peritogiannis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mobile Mental Health Unit of the Prefectures of Ioannina and Thesprotia, Society for the Promotion of Mental Health in Epirus, Ioannina, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thiresia","family":"Manthopoulou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mobile Mental Health Unit of the Prefectures of Ioannina and Thesprotia, Society for the Promotion of Mental Health in Epirus, Ioannina, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Afroditi","family":"Gogou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mobile Mental Health Unit of the Prefectures of Ioannina and Thesprotia, Society for the Promotion of Mental Health in Epirus, Ioannina, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Venetsanos","family":"Mavreas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"10894","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-1","first-page":"58","volume-title":"Mobile health units: Mobilizing healthcare to reach unreachable","author":"Khanna","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int J Healthc Manag"},{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Burns T. Team structures in community mental health. In: Morgan C, Bhugra D, editors. Principles of Social Psychiatry. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 2010. p. 387-96.","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470684214.ch29"},{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-3","first-page":"116","volume-title":"Efficacy of community treatments for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders: A literature review","author":"Armijo","year":"2013","journal-title":"Front Psychiatry"},{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thornicroft G, Semrau M, Alen A, Drake RE, Ito H, Mari J, et al., editors. Community Mental Health: Putting Policy into Practice Globally. 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Switzerland: Springer; 2016. p. 167-91.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-28616-7_10"},{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-7","first-page":"71","volume-title":"Community mental health teams in Greece: The paradigm of Mobile Mental Health Units","author":"Peritogiannis","year":"2014","journal-title":"Arch Hell Med"},{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-8","first-page":"315","volume-title":"Socioeconomic indicators for analyzing convergence: The case of Greece: 1960-2004","author":"Liargovas","year":"2009","journal-title":"Soc Indic Res"},{"key":"key-10.4103\/0976-3147.218454-9","unstructured":"Hellenic Statistical Authority. Available from: http:\/\/www.statistics.gr\/. 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