The Psychiatry Specialty Medical Outpatient Clinic at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Ariella Hasegawa Galvão
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Amino, Denise, Laranjeira, Ronaldo Ramos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Debates em Psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistardp.org.br/revista/article/view/285
• topic: serviço de ambulatório em saúde; pandemia; COVID-19; saúde mental; outpatient health service; pandemic; COVID-19; mental health; servicio ambulatorio de salud; pandemia; COVID-19; salud mental

Introduction: No country was adequately prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 93% of countries across the world have experienced some kind of interruption in mental health services. AME Psychiatry used information from international and national health authorities to make decisions, in order to adapt daily routines and rules in the unit. Objective: The objective of this study is to describe the adjustments carried out by a public service specialized in mental health at the beginning of the pandemic, to maintain a safe health care assistance against the risks of COVID-19’s contamination, based on available information. Additionally, it will provide the profile data of patients seen before and after the beginning of the pandemic. Method: Cross-sectional study. Adjustments made based on management reports, procedure manuals, meeting minutes and training presentations. Sample of 10 120 patients selected by convenience, who attended at least one individual appointment with a psychiatrist between May 2019 and December 2020. This time period was determined in order to obtain a comparison of two groups, pre-pandemic (May 2019 to February 2020) and post-pandemic (March to December 2020), with the same time amount of 10 months. Results: The adaptations made enabled the AME Psychiatry to maintain its health care services and to compare the profile of patients who started the treatment before the pandemic with those who started it after. There was no change in terms of patients’ sex in the two analyzed periods, with 65% of them being women and 35% men. There was a reduction of 26% regarding child and teenager patients (aged 0 to 19) and of 14% for the elderly (aged 60 and above), and a 7% raise for adults (aged 20 to 59). Conclusion: Although the study shows COVID-19’s direct and indirect factors as predisposing to the development of mental disorders, we cannot affirm that these changes in the diagnostic profile of AME Psychiatry patients after the beginning of the pandemic are related to COVID-19. On the other hand, the publication of findings from a public outpatient clinic specialized in mental health that maintained consultations at the beginning and during the pandemic, is of great value to support other researchers in this area.