Collaboration Worked

The community mental health concept is still viable, as noted in the February 6 issue, and many centers are still functioning well despite budget problems. Most centers, however, were not adequately funded, and center administration was taken away from psychiatrists. This and the politicization of boards of directors led to deterioration of services.

In the 1970s several departments of psychiatry developed productive relationships with community mental health centers. The centers became training sites for psychiatry residents. Faculty supervised at the centers, and in some centers psychiatry faculty were contracted to serve as center directors. This led to a high quality of service and prospects for innovation. Residents who trained in mental health centers tended to work in these centers following training.

Granted, a community mental health center's association with a department of psychiatry does not guarantee high-quality services; nevertheless, this was a model that had great potential and may be still be productive in some centers, but the problems mentioned above led in many cases to the disruption of the relationship between psychiatry departments and the centers. Patients have suffered as a result.