Authorities willing to learn from European experience how to open community mental health centres

The authorities intend to set up a network of district community centres of psychosocial rehabilitation for persons with mental disabilities during the next years. In such a way, the number of beds in psychiatric hospitals will be reduced. Community mental health centres now work in Chisinau, Balti and Ungheni. According to a communiqué from the Ministry of Health, the international practice shows that the model of community assistance is a more efficient mechanism for this category of patients than the residential system. Such specialists as psychiatrists, psychotherapists, social assistants and ergotherapists will work in the community centres. The key aim of such changes is to individualize the assistance in the area by removing the stigmatization and by observing the human rights in the mental health care system. The World Mental Health Day is celebrated on October 10 each year. The theme for 2007 is “Mental health in a changing world: the impact of culture and diversity”. According to the Ministry of Health, 94,100 people with psychiatric disorders were reported in Moldova last year, in contrast to 90,500 people in 2005. Some 20,300 of the total number are children younger than 17. The incidence of psychical diseases in 2006 was 14,800 cases, as against 12.8 cases in 2005.