State of Emergency: The Psychiatric Health Refonn In Spain

Abstract

As Spain began it's psychiatric/basic health reform, we saw this idea of higher mental health placed as a primary goal. To study how this system operated, I went to Spain to learn the basic steps and process of the psychiatric reform, and mainly to see how these new mental health teams work both collectively and individually. By familiarizing myself with the Spanish mental health system I could better understand how a community-based system operated. While the United States also runs on a community basis, it actually lacks the community support and governmental funds for proper functioning whereas the Spanish system works from the most basic, community level, to serve that same group of people. During this study, I wanted to learn what was necessary to construct a true community-based system and how one would go about setting up an entire system for mental health that is meant to be run from a basic, non-specialized unit. While previous research discusses the basic reform goals, prevalence of mental illness, and causes of mental illness, there was no research based on the evaluation of the Mental Health System and it's move towards psychiatric reform.