Determinants of Community Mental Health Service Utilization Among Psychiatric Outpatients at a Tertiary Medical...

Objectives: This study examined factors influencing community mental health service utilization and identified strategies to improve accessibility for psychiatric outpatients receiving care at the Department of Psychiatry. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive survey utilized a structured questionnaire to collect data from 136 patients receiving outpatient psychiatric care at a tertiary medical institution in Seoul, Korea. Logistic regression analysis was performed using SPSS version 26.0 for Windows. Results: Logistic regression analysis identified significant factors influencing the utilization of community mental health services: being a man (OR = 3.33), duration of illness (OR = 2.31), recognition of service institutions (OR = 39.09), internalized stigma (OR = 4.90), and stress (OR = 3.14). Conclusions: To encourage the utilization of community mental health services by patients with mental illness, psychiatric nurses should increase the level of understanding and information about community-based mental health support. Additionally, details on community mental health services should be provided from the earliest stages of illness in a variety of gender-specific ways during discharge education, and patients with high levels of internalized stigma and stress should be encouraged to have an insight of their illness and to take an active role in their recovery.