%0 Journal Article %T Treatment dropout at a secondary mental health service %A Ribeiro %A M¨˘rio S¨¦rgio %A Xavier J¨˛nior %A Jos¨¦ Candido Caldeira %A Mascarenhas %A Tiago Rodrigues %A Silva %A Priscila Matthiesen %A Vieira %A Eveline Maria de Melo %A Ribeiro %A Luiz Cl¨˘udio %J Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy %D 2012 %I Associa??o de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul %R 10.1590/S2237-60892012000400006 %X objective: to investigate mental health dropout rates in secondary care and to identify possible associations between this variable and social, demographic, psychopathologic, and health care process-related variables. method: this prospective, observational study included 994 patients referred to a secondary service by four primary care units and evaluated by a specialist mental health team between 2004 and 2008. the dependent variable was treatment dropout. bivariate analyses investigated possible associations between treatment dropout and 57 independent variables. results: the overall dropout rate from specialist mental health treatment was relatively low (mean = 25.6%). only four independent variables were associated with dropout: one socioeconomic, two psychopathological, and one health care process variable. all associations were marginally significant (p < 0.1). conclusion: our findings suggest that family members, patients, and health care professionals are well engaged in this mental health care system based on a model of primary care. the use of this mental health model of care should be extended to other regions of our country. %K patient dropouts %K mental health %K secondary health care %K quality of health care. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S2237-60892012000400006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en