ABSTRACT
General medical services play an important role in the provision of mental health care. Most patients with emotional problems never reach the specialized psychiatric service but are treated by general practitioners. Information on the use of mental health services was gathered from the registers and questionnaires, and directly at interview of the subjects. In Finland, the official health policy regards mental health problems as an essential part of the targets in the primary health care. Both the primary medical and psychiatric specialist services in Finland are characterized by good availability and reasonably equal distribution all over the country. The Mini Finland research project is a two-phase health survey, intended to provide basic epidemiological information, in particular, on cardiovascular, musculo-skeletal and mental disorders. In the age-group of 65 years or over the utilization of primary care was four times that of psychiatric specialist services.
