Mental Health Services in Slovenia

Abstract

Background: Development of mental health services in Slovenia has some originalities described in the present article. Slovenia is a small Central European country with a population of 2 million. Its mental health system has been influenced by the western de-institutionalization movement and eastern models of care which are predominately institutional. Aims: Mental health reform in the 1970s was a silent one with displacement of long-term psychiatric patients to old-people's homes, asylums and to their families. During the last decade community mental health services have been established in the non-government sector, primarily as social institutions providing support to patients with severe mental illness. Psychosocial rehabilitation movement changed some therapeutic approaches in hospitals and has been gaining more and more influence in the NGO services. Results: The article describes Slovene psychiatric hospitals and community rehabilitation services. Mental health services in Slovenia are compared to services in Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Conclusions: The authors are proposing guidelines for future development of mental health services for the severely mentally ill in our country in order to improve the present deficient state of care.