COMMUNITY-HEALTH PROFILE WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENT AND MENTAL-HEALTH

The need for data on psychiatric morbidity, risk/protective factors an d available resources for prevention is emphasised. Community health p rofile, or community diagnosis, is presented as a method to combine th ese types of data for the purpose of prevention. The scarcity of relev ant data on psychiatric morbidity and risk/protective factors in exist ing databases is underlined, concluding that public statistics has to be supplemented by community surveys to make up a health profile with focus on mental health. A questionnaire for the collecting of relevant data is described. Among the data special emphasis is put on negative life events, long-lasting adversities, social support and social inte gration, in addition to sociodemographic data and data on mental healt h and health service utilization. An example comparing the results fro m two communities is given.