Humanization in mental health plans in Spain

Mental health (MH) care has important challenges, especially in the field of humanization. Our objectives were to identify the humanization measures in MH plans of the Spanish autonomous communities (AC) and the priorities to be developed in this area.

A large and multidisciplinary group of people involved in MH care participated in a consensus, according to a modified Delphi method, based on «design thinking», in three phases: (1) identification of humanization measures in MH plans of AC; (2) analysis of the implementation of these measures; and (3) identification of humanization priorities in MH.

Fourteen of the 17 AC have current MH plans. They contained four types of humanization measures: (1) improvement of the quality of care; (2) promotion of user participation; (3) campaigns against stigma and discrimination; (4) caring for especially vulnerable people. Implementation of measures ranged from 6.3% (i.e.: specific budget) to 100%, with an average of 64.1%. We identified priority issues, operationalized in 5 proposals: (1) information campaigns; (2) multidisciplinary meeting forums; (3) platforms of support entities; (4) strategies on MH education; (5) humanization in study plans.

Some MH plans include humanization among their objectives, but partially. The implementation of humanization proposals such as those identified in this study is essential to achieve a high-quality MH care.