Community Mental Health in Türkiye and Europe: Data and Influencing Factors

Abstract

Human is an entity that can be completed with the combination of biological, psychological and social factors. The concept of health is defined as being in a state of complete mental, social and physical well-being. The term "community mental health" defines mental health care in relation to the individual and the environment in which the individual interacts. If the factors affecting mental health are known and intervened, it is predicted that community mental health will make positive progress. The aim of this study is to examine and compare the factors affecting community mental health by analysing community mental health data in Türkiye and Europe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) examines these factors in three groups as individual, family and community and structural factors. In order to analyse the degree to which these factors affect mental health, data from Türkiye and Europe were analysed by examining the reports of the World Health Organization, European Commission, European Parliament, OECD, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and Turkish Statistical Institute. It is seen that community mental health is affected by the community's understanding of health and illness, access to mental health services, gender, age, education, the concept of loneliness, unemployment, diseases affecting the world such as pandemics and the economy. As a result of mental health reports and analyses, not much difference was observed between the factors affecting public mental health in Türkiye and Europe. In general, it is seen that there are country-based evaluations in mental health data. Differences between countries are generally interpreted with the development levels of countries. However, cultural differences between countries are not emphasised. For an accurate comparison, multicentre studies should be conducted involving researchers from different countries who know the culture of the society.