Barriers to integrating mental health services in community-based primary care settings in Mexico City: a qualitative analysis
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Despite the high prevalence of mental disorders in Mexico, minimal mental health services are available and there are large gaps in mental health treatment. Community-based primary care settings are often the first contact between patients and the health system and thus could serve as important settings for assessing and treating mental disorders. However, no formal assessment has been undertaken regarding the feasibility of implementing these services in Mexico. Before tools are developed to undertake such an assessment, a more nuanced understanding of the microprocesses affecting mental health service delivery must be acquired. METHODS: A qualitative study used semistructured interviews to gather information from 25 staff in 19 community-based primary care clinics in Mexico City. Semistructured interviews were analyzed by using the meaning categorization method. In a second phase of coding, emerging themes were compared with an established typology of barriers to health care access. RESULTS: Primary care staff reported a number of significant barriers to implementing mental health services in primary care clinics, an already fragile and underfunded system. Barriers included the following broad thematic categories: service issues, language and cultural issues, care recipient characteristics, and issues with lack of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that the implementation of mental health services in primary care clinics in Mexico will be difficult. However, the information in this study can help inform the integration of mental health into community-based primary care in Mexico through the development of adequate evaluative tools to assess the feasibility and progress of integrating these services.
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Mental health services in Mexico are still insufficient.
“however mental health services are still insufficient (Martinez et al., 2017).”
From A Self-Applied Multi-Component Psychological Online Intervention Based on UX, for the Prevention of Complicated Grief Disorder in the Mexican Population During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Protocol of a Randomized Clinical Trial (2021) · cites this paper as Martinez et al., 2017
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- Authors
- Martinez, W., Galván, J., Saavedra, N., & Berenzon, S.
- Affiliations
- Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz (MX)
- Venue
- Psychiatric Services
- Published
- 2017-05-01
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 497-502
- ISSN
- 0022-1597 (ISSN-L)
- 1075-2730
- 1557-9700
- PMC
- PMC5411288
- OpenAlex
- W2564827178
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 6.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychiatric Services (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R13MH066308)
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (T37MD003405)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Keywords
- mental health integration, community-based primary care, barriers to mental health care, mental illness, language and cultural barriers, mental health service delivery, Mexico City, health system underfunding
- MeSH terms
- Attitude of Health Personnel, Community Health Services, Humans, Mental Health Services, Mexico, Primary Health Care, Qualitative Research
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