Analysis of hospital-community integrated service policy and community management for patients with severe mental disorders in Sichuan Province from 2015 to 2020

To analyze the shortcomings and key aspects of policies concerning hospital-community integration for patients with severe mental disorders (SMD) in China, thereby providing theoretical support for future policy adjustments. The policy documents were coded based on policy terms and classified according to policy contents using policy tools, text analysis, and statistical methods. A total of 17 national and 12 provincial policy documents were collected. Among them, 5.9% (0.0%), 11.8% (16.7%), 52.9% (58.3%), and 29.4% (25.0%) of documents are categorized under LAW, OUTLINE, GOAL, and IMPLEMENTATION, respectively. Policy tools comprehensively apply environmental type, supply type and demand type, accounting for 51.8%(71.4%), 33.5%(20.4%) and 14.7%(8.2%), respectively. Compared with 2014, the registration rate, regular management rate, regular medication-taking rate, and patients’ stable rate in 2020 increased by 45.1%(34.0%), 137.7%(164.2%), 183.2%(208.5%), and 42.5%(30.9%), respectively. The policy tools of hospital-community integration for patients with SMD are mainly environmental policies, and the coordination of the three policy tools should be explored. There are great deficiencies in the existing policies in terms of capital investment and supervision, we should strengthen the implementation of policies and promote the development of hospital-community integration for patients with SMD. Not applicable.