The Provision of Mental Health Protection Services Through the Public and Civil Sectors in the Republic of Serbia

Mental health care reform is a long-term process and a key aspect of the development and progress of society as a whole. This paper aims to present an overview and analysis of mental health care services intended for adults within the public and civil sectors in the Republic of Serbia. The main method applied in this study is content analysis. The results show that certain services and measures to improve mental health care have been created and implemented, but many goals have not yet been achieved. The biggest challenges facing the provision of mental health care services – alongside a lack of financial resources – are discrepancies in regulations, the dominance of tertiary health services in providing treatment to people with mental health, a lack of services in the community, insufficient involvement of the civil sector, and weak intersectoral cooperation between different systems. Due to the lack of data transparency and comprehensive service registries, this paper presents a large – although not comprehensive – number of public, civil, and private sector mental health care services. Mental health care in the Republic of Serbia should in the future aim to overcome the gap between mental health policy and practice, promote deinstitutionalization, establish health and social services and support systems in the community, and search for protection models that will enable better social inclusion for people with mental health problems and the fulfillment of their social, economic, and all other human rights.