Mental Health Patients’ Expectations about the Non-Medical Care They Receive in Primary Care: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

Abstract

A health system’s responsiveness is the result of patient expectations for the non-medical care they receive. The objective of this study was to assess mental patients’ responsiveness to the health system in primary care, as related to the domains of dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, and communication. Data were collected from 215 people over the age of 18 with mental disorders, using the Multi-Country Survey Study (MCSS) developed by the World Health Organization. Of them, 95% reported a good experience regarding the dignity, confidentiality, communication, and autonomy domains. Regarding responsiveness, patients valued the dignity domain as the most important one (25.1%). Among the patients who experienced poor confidentiality, five out of seven earned less than 900 euros per month (Χ2 = 10.8, p = 0.004). Among those who experienced good autonomy, 85 out of 156 belonged to the working social class (90.4%), and among those who valued it as poor (16.1%), the highest proportion was for middle class people (Χ2 = 13.1, p = 0.028). The two students and 87.5% of retirees experienced this dimension as good, and most patients who valued it as poor were unemployed (43.5%) (Χ2 = 13.0, p = 0.011). Patients with a household income higher than 900 euros more frequently valued responsiveness as good, regarding those domains related to communication, with OR = 3.84, 95% CI = 1.05–14.09, and confidentiality, with OR = 10.48, 95% CI = 1.94–56.59. To conclude, as regards responsiveness in primary care, the dignity domain always obtained the best scores by people with mental disorders. Low economic income is related to a poor assessment of confidentiality. Working class patients, students, and retirees value autonomy as good.