Author Response to comment on the Methodology Used in Sri Lankan Data Collection (Shoba Raja, 19 December 2011)
The article is not a comprehensive summary of all the country finance studies. We selected only certain pieces of data to report on. The reason for this is the space constraints of producing a synthesis and also the need for a single set of variables to compare across all the countries. The quantitative data used from the Sri Lanka study related to the overall mental health budget, which was taken from key informant estimates.
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Comment on: Raja et al. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 4:11
A clarification of the methodology used in Sri Lankan data collection for the above study (Ruchira Kitsiri, 27 May 2011)
I would like to comment on methods used to gather Sri Lanka mental healthcare financing information. As reported in the Sri Lanka section (page 6of 14- PDF version)of this paper under the subheading 'Public Funding of Mental Health'.
The authors state...
"All quantitative data for Sri Lanka is taken from estimates relayed by government key informants.
The researcher was not able to review actual government budgets to confirm these numbers.
According to key informants in the health ministry, the total national ring-fenced budget for mental health in Sri Lanka in 2008/09 was $8,473,392. "
Clarification...
These statements are simply not true and I feel do not report the research methodology correctly...
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Comment on: Raja et al. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 4:11
Volume of visits v number of separate individual patients s (Eileen McGinn, 10 February 2009)
This is an interesting study of the rate of and possible reasons for the increase in the volume of visits to EDs for psychiatric patients at four sites with differing types of population changes over a long 11 to 12 year period. Tracking the volume of visits as was done in this study is instructive. However, as the authors note toward the end of the article, more visits many not correlate with a larger population or even with a larger number of individual patients if a relatively few patients make many or more visits than most other patients. So a higher volume of visits is not directly tied to size or increase in population. More visits to the ED may reflect types of illnesses, effectiveness of treatment and many other socioeconomic characteristics. It is even possible that the...
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Comment on: Paradis et al. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 3:3
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Author Response to comment on the Methodology Used in Sri Lankan Data Collection (Shoba Raja, 19 December 2011)
The article is not a comprehensive summary of all the country finance studies. We selected only certain pieces of data to report on. The reason for this is the space constraints of producing a synthesis and also the need for a single set of variables to compare across all the countries. The quantitative data used from the Sri Lanka study related to the overall mental health budget, which was taken from key informant estimates. read full comment
Comment on: Raja et al. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 4:11
A clarification of the methodology used in Sri Lankan data collection for the above study (Ruchira Kitsiri, 27 May 2011)
I would like to comment on methods used to gather Sri Lanka mental healthcare financing information. As reported in the Sri Lanka section (page 6of 14- PDF version)of this paper under the subheading 'Public Funding of Mental Health'.
The authors state...
"All quantitative data for Sri Lanka is taken from estimates relayed by government key informants.
The researcher was not able to review actual government budgets to confirm these numbers.
According to key informants in the health ministry, the total national ring-fenced budget for mental health in Sri Lanka in 2008/09 was $8,473,392. "
Clarification...
These statements are simply not true and I feel do not report the research methodology correctly... read full comment
Comment on: Raja et al. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 4:11
Volume of visits v number of separate individual patients s (Eileen McGinn, 10 February 2009)
This is an interesting study of the rate of and possible reasons for the increase in the volume of visits to EDs for psychiatric patients at four sites with differing types of population changes over a long 11 to 12 year period. Tracking the volume of visits as was done in this study is instructive. However, as the authors note toward the end of the article, more visits many not correlate with a larger population or even with a larger number of individual patients if a relatively few patients make many or more visits than most other patients. So a higher volume of visits is not directly tied to size or increase in population. More visits to the ED may reflect types of illnesses, effectiveness of treatment and many other socioeconomic characteristics. It is even possible that the... read full comment
Comment on: Paradis et al. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 3:3