The SMHS 2016, a three-year project starting in Apr 2015 received funding from the Ministry of Health, Singapore and the Singapore Millennium Foundation of the Temasek Trust. It is a comprehensive national psychiatric epidemiological study among adults in Singapore. The project led by IMH is a collaborative study between IMH, MOH, Nanyang Technological University and Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
The aims to:
- Track and trend the state of mental health status of the Singapore population since the last survey conducted in 2010
- Establish the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of select mental disorders in the adult Singapore resident population,
- Describe the current use of mental health services (both Western and traditional services), level of unmet need including treatment gaps, and identify facilitators and barriers to mental health treatment and the financial, social and personal costs associated with mental illnesss
- Estimate the societal cost of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. The survey will be conducted over one year in 2016 where about 6500 interviews will be completed at households in Singapore, comprising of a representative sample of residents aged 18 years and above.
The study will provide data that are necessary to trend the changes following the National Mental Health Blueprint and Policy and to evaluate the impact of the key initiatives that have been implemented. It will also establish the prevalence of disorders that hitherto have not been established in Singapore such as schizophrenia and related psychoses, and suicidality.
