Monday, January 24, 2005

The Treatment Gap in Mental Health Care Red Nova article - "If disability is to be reduced, a bridging of the 'treatment gap' must occur. The treatment gap represents the absolute difference between the true prevalence of a disorder and the treated proportion of individuals affected by the disorder. Alternatively, the treatment gap may be expressed as the percentage of individuals who require care but do not receive treatment. Estimating the treatment gap in a population depends on the prevalence period of the disorder, the time frame of the examination of service utilization, and the demographic representativeness of the study sample with reference to the target population. The objective of this report is to examine the extent of the treatment gap for selected mental disorders. "