Development of Community Mental Health Program Using Evidence-Based Practice

Evidence-based approaches are prominent on the national and international agendas for health policy and health promotion. Thus the purpose of this research is to find out the need of a mental health program for the community and create an organized and all-around mental health program using the evidence-based practice. The research was done as a descriptive study with 861 randomly chosen subjects living in Seo-gu, Busan. After analyzing the data, the highest need of the citizens was in mental health promotion education program for the children and youth, and suicide prevention program in adults and the elderly. Therefore it was possible to create programs according to the stages of the life cycle, such as depression management guide and stress control programs for the children and youth, suicide prevention education, gate-keeper education program, programs for the family of suicide for adults and visiting programs for the elderly of the community.