Mobile Mental Health Units in Heraklion Crete 2013–2022: Progress, Difficulties and Future Challenges

Mobile mental health units (MMHUs) have been proposed as an effective model to serve the mental health needs of remote underserved areas. In 2013, the Department of Psychiatry, University of Crete, started a pilot MMHU to cover the needs of remote rural areas of the Heraklion Prefecture. The main objectives were early detection, prevention and therapy of patients with severe psychiatric disorders, without access to regular psychiatric care. In addition to regular visits to primary care health centers, a community support network was established. During this 10-year period, the MMHU has evaluated 3343 patients and performed 19,935 visits. The most frequent diagnoses are depression and anxiety (52.7%) whereas psychosis and bipolar disorders are the third (12.7%) and fifth most frequent diagnoses (4.7%). Half of the patients with depression/anxiety were older than 65 years and one third were living alone. Furthermore, the first visit with the MMHU of severely mentally ill was about 15 years later from the self-reported onset of psychotic symptoms. We discuss how to improve our ability to detect and intervene earlier in patients with severe mental illness, and how to address effectively, both pharmacologically and psychosocially, the depression and loneliness of older individuals living in small remote communities.