Abstract

Objectives:Over ten years has passed since the integration of Mental Health Program into the Na-tion’s Primary Health Care system (PHC), yet its management thus far has not been assessed.The objective of this project was to evaluate the management performance of Mental Health Program in the PHC of Khuzestan province based on four dimensions of planning,organization,administra-tion, and control.

Method:This was a descriptive-comparative and a practical study. The instrument to collect data was the five point scale Likrette ranking the responses from very much to very little. The popula-tion sample was 108 managers at various levels of mental health program in PHC of Khuzestan pro- vince.77 of these managers volunteered to take part in the research. 8 were the heads of health care districts 13 were mental health care specialists and 56 were general practitioners in charge of the health treatment centers in rural areas under the auspices of Mental Health Program.Data were ana- lyzed by descriptive statistics and Fisher exact test.

Findings: The managers performed at a medium level across all four abovementioned dimensions. Comparison of the mean scores indicated that control and supervision were the strongest and admi- nistration was the weakest dimensions. Planning and organization were ranked respectively the se- cond and the third. A significant difference was noted on the dimension of organization between the participants in the study at different levels of management such difference was not indicated on other dimensions.

Results:There is a gap between the ideal and the actual conditions of mental health program manage- ment in PHC of Khuzestan province.