Development of a Depression Surveillance Model in the Community, Sangkha District, Surin Province

Abstract

Objective: To study the situation of depression case and evaluate a Depression Surveillance Model in the Community, Sangkha District, Surin province

Methods: This research and development study was conducted in 4 phases: 1) planning 2) action 3) observation and 4) reflection. The sample consisted of 3 groups: 14 service providers who were members of the district mental health committee, 100 community leaders from 2 high-risk areas with previous successful suicide cases, and 40 patients with mild to moderate depression. Research instruments included focus group discussion questions, depression screening tools (2Q, 9Q, 8Q), knowledge assessment forms, and satisfaction evaluation forms validated by experts. Data were analyzed using the McNemar-Bowker test and Paired t-test.

Results: The depression surveillance system lacked close monitoring and screening, proactive services, and systematic community care support. Therefore, a community depression surveillance model was developed, consisting of 3 main components: community network development, mental health case finding, and continuous care. After development, community leaders' knowledge at a good level significantly increased from 32% to 72% (χ² = 42.86, p-value < 0.001), with a mean knowledge score increased by 0.58 points (95% CI: 0.49 to 0.67, p < 0.001). Among participating patients who were mostly female (72.50%) with a mean age of 55.47 years (SD = 5.99), depression levels decreased significantly (χ² = 31.24, p-value < 0.001), with 72.50% showing no depression after development and mean depression scores decreased by 3.72 points (95% CI: 3.12 to 4.32, p-value < 0.001). Both community leaders and patients reported increased satisfaction to high level (3.67 ± 0.61, 3.63 ± 0.80 respectively) with mean scores increased by 0.38 points (95% CI: 0.31 to 0.45, p-value = 0.001) and 0.44 points (95% CI: 0.12 to 0.76, p-value < 0.001) respectively.

Conclusion: The developed surveillance model can effectively be used to care for patients with depression in the community. However, long-term continuous monitoring and evaluation should be conducted, with model adaptation to suit each area's context.