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Observational Study
. 2023 Dec;69(8):1996-2006.
doi: 10.1177/00207640231185026. Epub 2023 Jul 14.

Provision of community mental health care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A time series analysis in Peru

David Villarreal-Zegarra  1 , Piero Segovia-Bacilio  1 , Rubí Paredes-Angeles  2 , Ana Lucía Vilela-Estrada  2 , Victoria Cavero  2 , Francisco Diez-Canseco  2
Affiliations
Observational Study

Provision of community mental health care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A time series analysis in Peru

David Villarreal-Zegarra et al. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Background: A consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic was that the provision of mental health services was reduced in several countries around the world, while the demand for mental health services increased.

Aims: Our study aims to determine any variation in the number of users served, health appointments, and care activities conducted at 58 Peruvian community mental health centers (CMHCs) between March 2019 and October 2021.

Methods: Our study used an observational design and analyzed information from the care provided in CMHCs. We evaluate the number of users served, health appointments, and care activities performed per month. The main statistical analysis used segmented regression with Newey-West standard errors, taking into account each month of the evaluation.

Results: We had 988,456 unique users during the period evaluated. Regarding diagnoses, 7.4% (n = 72,818) had a severe mental problem, 39.4% (n = 389,330) a common mental problem, and 53.2% (n = 526,308) others health problems. The study found a reduction in the number of users served and health care appointments at the 58 CMHCs in March 2020, the month in which the closure measures were declared to reduce COVID-19 infections in Peru. This reduction was followed by an upward trend in the three variables during the pandemic in the 58 CMHCs studied. In, November 2020, 9 months after the pandemic started, the deficit in the average number of users served per month was recovered.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that CMHCs in the Peruvian system were able to regain care capacity approximately 1 year after the pandemic. In addition, we discuss the efforts made to respond to mental health needs in the context of a global health crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19; Peru; interrupted time series analysis; mental health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Interrupted time series analysis for the number of users served per month between March 2019 and October 2021.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Interrupted time series analysis for the number of health appointments and care activities per month: (a) analysis for the health appointments per month and (b) analysis for care activities per month.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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