Abstract:
This mixed method research aimed to study the effectiveness of the project to support psychologists
in primary care services.Thesampleconsisted of psychologists who have been hired through the budget of the
development of community mental health services system in primary care.40 psychologists were chosen through
simple random samplingand were used to collect the quantitative data.Whereas, the qualitative data was collected
from the psychologists, who work in primary care services, through a focus group discussion.The focus group
was conducted in 4 regions of Thailand and it had8-12 psychologists/region and 7 supervisors. The participants
were selected using purposive sampling. The data was collected using:1) the development of community mental
health services systemin primary care questionnaire,2) the satisfaction of the community psychology practice,
and 3) focus group discussion interview guide. Content validity of the questionnaires was validated by3experts.
The IOC was 0.66 and 1.00, respectively. The reliability(Cronbachs alpha)was 0.79 and 0.90, respectively.The
data were analyzed using frequencies,percentage,mean, standard deviation, and content analysis.
The results showed that: 1.)the effect of the development of community mental health servicesin
primary care in three aspectsthat includes the effectiveness, success and sustainability were high ( =4.18,
S.D.=.33; =4.16, S.D.=.37; and =3.87, S.D.=.58, respectively), and 2.) the satisfaction of the community
psychology practice of the psychologists was high as well ( =7.54, S.D.=1.60). The focus group discussion
revealed that both of the psychologists and their supervisors expressed that the project was good. It supports
the psychologists to work in the communityby increasingthe chance to learn, create new innovation, and integrate
the mental health services with the other career in primary care. They also continue to create the plan
for community mental health services in the next coming years. Moreover, most of the psychologists were rehired
after the project was finished. Both of the psychologists and their supervisors were satisfied to the community
psychology practice in primary care. The government that has driven the policy should continue to
promote and create the network of psychologists who work in primary care services as well as to encourage
psychologists to develop different aspects of their competencies that are related to mental health in primary
care in order to provide the effectiveservices to the people in the community.